


Creations

by Hester_Of_Ravenswood, TheLonelyDraconequus



Series: RWBY, but Pollination Style [10]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, No Smut, No enabler, Surprise Pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 08:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 39
Words: 71,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24467962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hester_Of_Ravenswood/pseuds/Hester_Of_Ravenswood, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLonelyDraconequus/pseuds/TheLonelyDraconequus
Summary: Team RWBY and the struggles of motherhood. What's better than that?!Side note: You all know the drill by now, no smut, no enabler!
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee/Yang Xiao Long, Coco Adel/Velvet Scarlatina, Fox Alistair/Yatsuhashi Daichi, Ilia Amitola/Pyrrha Nikos/Sun Wukong, Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Neopolitan/Ciel Soleil, Oscar Pine/Whitley Schnee, Penny Polendina/Winter Schnee, Qrow Branwen/Elm Ederne
Series: RWBY, but Pollination Style [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1661938
Comments: 417
Kudos: 75





	1. Cheat Sheet

It has come to my attention that not everyone knows which baby is which. That's why I'm doing this! This will be in order of birth, by the way! Triplets and quadruplets will be separated!

Quadruplets-

Adolpha-

Order of birth: First born

Appearance: Light gray wolf ears, light gray eyes (note: not silver like Ruby, Ruby is not one of her biological mothers), light gray hair, medium-sized

Aura color: light gray

Faunus?: Yes, wolf faunus with wolf ears

Gender: Female

Pronunciation: A-doll-fa

Nicknames: Dolphie (doll-fie)

Parents (biologically): Weiss (gave birth), Blake, Yang

Personality: She appears to fit the eldest roll very well, appears to be protective. Does not cry often, only does so when others are upset or when scared by loud noises. Appears to be exceptionally close to Jin.

Likes: Weiss' singing, Blake's purring, siblings, her aunts/uncles, grandparents, parents

Dislikes: Kali's purring, siblings crying, loud noises

Quirks: She is often seen staring off into the distance for no noticeable reason.

Jin-

Order of birth: Second born

Appearance: She's a very large baby, has lilac eyes (note: like Yang's), blond hair

Aura: Dirty blond color, as in a mix between brown and yellow

Faunus?: Yes, armadillo faunus, skin can turn into scales (note: this happens when she is upset or scared, but presumably she will be able to control this later)

Gender: Female

Pronunciation: Jin. Like Jinn in the show or the alcohol.

Nicknames: Jinny

Parents (biologically): Weiss (gave birth), Blake, and Yang

Personality: She seems to go with the flow, does not cry often unless she gets scared or Adolpha starts to cry. She appears to be exceptionally close with Adolpha.

Likes: Her siblings, her family, Adolpha, Blake's purring, being rocked back and forth, warm temperatures

Dislikes: Adolpha crying, cold temperatures (note: not like her other siblings, must be very cold for her to be upset)

Quirks: Her skin can turn into scales when she gets excited sometimes

Akio-

Order of birth: Third born

Appearance: Light brown hair, brown eyes, regular sized baby, very surprisingly normal looking

Aura color: Light green/pale green

Faunus?: No

Gender: Male

Pronunciation: Akio... like the harry potter spell actually.

Nicknames: none as of yet.

Parents: Weiss (gave birth), Blake, Yang

Personality: He seems to not have any defining personality traits yet, instead seeming oddly normal for a child that is related to Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Has confused many people.

Likes: Family, siblings, aunts/uncles, grandparents, napping

Dislikes: Allergies

Quirks: He seems to have a lot of allergies that upset him and makes his parents have to make sure that the room is very clean.

Aella-

Order of birth: Fourth born (final quadruplet)

Appearance: Large yellow eyes (note: same color as Blake's), hair color is black and white (note: Yang referred to it as looking like a salt and pepper shaker), fur is the same color as her hair when it appears, is noticeably small but not like Lavey

Aura color: Crimson red

Faunus?: Yes, sugar glider faunus, has gliders that can appear between arms and legs that cannot be seen otherwise

Gender: Female

Pronunciation: Al-ya

Nicknames: Ally, Allie

Parents: Weiss (gave birth), Yang, Blake

Personality: She's exceedingly playful and enjoys playing with anything she can get her hands on. She also requires almost constant attention, and she gets upset if one of her siblings is getting any kind of attention and she's not.

Likes: attention, family, playing (note: especially with Yang's mechanical hand, which she tried to stick in her mouth on multiple occasions), playing with her gliders (note: if she isn't swaddled, he can flip herself over by playing with them, which is dangerous), especially likes Ruby's cloak and occasionally tries to replicate it by using her gliders.

Dislikes: Being ignored, her siblings crying, 

Quirks: She is constantly trying to get attention and almost always causing chaos with her gliders. She enjoys the chaos.

Triplets-

Crystal-

Order of birth: Fifth (note: first of triplets)

Appearance: Pale white hair (note: imagine Weiss'), silver eyes (note: like Ruby's), her tail is like a snow leopard (note: white with black spots), facially resembles Blake.

Aura color: Light blue, same color as Weiss'

Faunus?: Yes, snow leopard with a black and white tail

Gender: Female

Pronunciation: Crystal. Just... like the word?

Nicknames: Cy, Stal

Parents: Ruby (gave birth), Weiss, Blake

Personality: Doesn't cry super often, appears to be a bit snooty, according to Ruby and Yang. Weiss and Blake don't know how a baby can be snooty, but she just is. They say this because she is a picky eater and a light sleeper.

Likes: Family, siblings, aunts/uncles, grandparents

Dislikes: Cold temperatures (note: is prone to sneezing and shaking if the temperature drops too much)

Quirks: Is, somehow, a snooty baby. Weiss and Blake disagree.

Lavey-

Order of birth: Sixth (note: second born triplet)

Appearance: Crimson red hair (looks as if it has been dyed, but is natural), silver eyes (note: like Ruby's), is very small (note: the smallest baby, looks premature, makes team RWBY very scared)

Aura color: Dark magenta

Faunus?: No

Gender: Female

Pronunciation: Laa-v-ie

Nicknames: Lav

Parents: Ruby (gave birth), Weiss, Blake

Personality: She is very calm and easy going, doesn't seem to care about most things, doesn't have any particular things that upset her, like most of her siblings, but her small size means that she gets extra attention.

Likes: Family, uncles/aunts, grandparents, parents, siblings

Dislikes: Nothing in particular, regular baby thin'gs

Quirks: She often laughs at nothing in particular.

Auburn-

Order of birth: Seventh (note: third triplet)

Appearance: Yellow eyes (note: think Blake's eyes), dark brown hair that is almost black, facially similar to Akio.

Aura color: Navy blue

Faunus?: Yes, swordfish faunus, has gills that appear with water

Gender: Male

Pronunciation: Auburn... like the color?

Nicknames: Au, Burn

Parents: Ruby (gave birth), Weiss, Blake

Personality: Seems quiet but can easily get anxious which causes... vomit. He's a puker.

Likes: Family, uncles/aunts, grandparents, parents, siblings.

Dislikes: Loud noise, arguments, siblings crying

Quirks: Vomits. Like... a lot.


	2. It Begins

Blake pushed herself off of the bed, hurrying over to the cribs at the sound of the cries, wondering who had made the noise. When she got to the seven, she realized that it had been Aella.

Blake gently reached down to grab her daughter, holding her baby up against her chest and starting to purr.

Aella instantly quieted, and Blake went to set her down. Aella started to cry again, and Blake hesitated, glancing back at her wives. The four of them had agreed that they were going to not coddle their children when they were crying at night, let the cry it out, as all of the parenting books had said, so that they could learn self comfort, but...

Weiss grumbled and pulled closer to Ruby, setting her head on the team leader's shoulder.

"It's the first night," the former heiress said sleepily, "we can make one exception, can't we?"

Blake grabbed the baby again and came back to the beds with Aella cradled gently in her arms.

She laid back down, setting the baby on her chest to sleep on her back.

Yang wrapped an arm around Blake's waist and pulled closer to her, not wanting to jostle Blake and, by proxy, Aella, but wanted to be close to her anyways.

Blake fell back asleep, enjoying the comforting feeling of Aella on her chest.

But it wasn't long until she heard crying again.

"Yang," Blake muttered, "your turn."

Yang pushed herself to her feet and hurried to the cribs, finding that Auburn was the one that was crying now.

She picked him up, wondering if he was hungry or if his diaper needed to be changed, but he instantly stopped crying when she grabbed him.

She went to put him down, and he cried again.

Yang considered for a moment before she came back to the bed, laying on her back and setting Auburn on her chest, making sure he slept on his back as well.

The four wives, and the two babies they had on the bed with them, fell back to sleep.

Not even half an hour later...

Another cry shot through the room.

Weiss stood up and walked over to the cribs, finding that it was now Akio.

She picked him up, and he stopped crying. She went to set him down, and he kept crying.

Weiss hesitated before she shrugged tiredly and walked back to bed with him on her chest. She made sure he slept on his back, and fell asleep.

It was fifteen minutes later, when the cycle repeated, this time Ruby getting up to grab two babies; Crystal and Lavey. She made sure they were safe before she slipped back into the land of dreams once more.

Everything was silent for a long time before they all woke up to the deafening cries of Jin.

Blake held Aella in her arm gently as she went to go check on the little girl.

Adolpha started to cry at the sound of Jin, and Yang grabbed her.

Yang and Blake went to go to bed again, but Jin cried again.

Blake reached out and started to purr, but she sound didn't help Jin in the slightest this time.

Weiss tried to get Jin to eat, but Jin kept crying.

Eventually, Blake set down Aella and reached out to grab Jin. Jin silenced herself as soon as she was in Blake's arms.

"Aw, Jin likes Blake the most," Ruby whispered with a small, tired smile.

Blake set Adolpha down so that she could take care of Jin, but Jin immediately started to cry.

Yang burst out laughing, but she made herself stay quiet.

"No, it looks like Adolpha's her favorite."

The wolf faunus stared at Jin for a long moment before a small smile grew across her lips, and she let out a giggle. Her little hand reached out and set itself on top of Jin's own, and Jin stopped her crying.

"Okay, that was the cutest thing that has ever happened in the history of cute things," Ruby breathed.

"Definitely," Weiss agreed.

Jin fell asleep in Blake's arms as she held her and Adolpha gently.

Yang grabbed Aella, the little scamp that had started all of this, and the eleven went to sleep on the medical beds.

But before they did, Blake whispered, "We're going to have to be way harsher later, because I'm not sleeping like this from now on."

Despite that, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.


	3. introductions

The first night had been restless for the four new mothers, and they'd gotten up early anyways because they knew they'd have to leave that afternoon.

But that wasn't the only reason they'd gotten up early.

Their hospital room was packed full of friends and family, all vying for the chance to see the babies. The seven were being passed around in circles between the onlookers, everyone trying to get a good look at each one.

Blake gently passed Jin to Ilia.

"You see her, Jin?" Blake was purring, and Jin let out a little giggle, looking up at Ilia. "That's your Aunt Ilia."

Ilia had teared up at the words, holding the baby gently in her arms, though she was clearly terrified that she might drop her.

Yang passed Adolpha over to Sun, who took her with an enthusiastic grin.

"Here's your Uncle Sun. He's going to be over way too often and probably bug you for the rest of your life!" Yang said happily, giving her friend a playful grin.

"You know," Sun said after a few minutes of gushing over how cute Adolpha was, "I bet I could carry three babies at once! I've got two arms and a tail-"

Blake grabbed Adolpha quickly, purring almost defensively and holding the wolf faunus to her chest.

"Kidding! I was just kidding!" Sun said quickly.

Ruby passed Crystal to Taiyang, who took her with a small smile. Crystal yawned as she laid there in his arms, clearly not impressed.

"You can tell she's related to Weiss," Taiyang joked, but he watched Crystal with a loving look in his eyes.

"This one's Crystal. And this is your-"

"Grampy. I'm their Grampy."

Ruby laughed and Yang joined in a minute later, 

Meanwhile, Weiss was holding both Auburn and Lavey. She smiled down at the two babies, being careful not to drop one. Finally, she turned to look at her siblings, passing one to each of them.

"Winter, Whitley, meet Lavey and Auburn," Weiss turned to her babies and began to speak as if they could understand her. "And these are your Uncle Whitley and Aunt Winter. You'll get used to them... eventually."

Blake, after passing Adolpha to Coco, turned to her parents, handing them Aella and Akio.

"Akio, Aella, these are your grandparents. Or, well, at least two of them. You have five living ones, but we don't talk about one of them," Blake paused and glanced up at her parents. "What do you want them to call you?"

"Grandma and Grandpa," Kali answered immediately, making Blake smile. Blake tried to let everyone have their time with the babies, but she was hovering slightly, clearly afraid that someone might drop them. She gave special attention to Winter, who was holding little Lavey, the tiniest of the bunch.

Ruby grabbed Auburn from Whitley and passed him over to an excited Penny.

Penny took the baby slowly, clearly worried that she might harm him in some way, and held him with surprising gentleness.

"Hi, little guy," Penny whispered. "I'm Aunt Penny! You can call me Aunt Pen too, or just Penny, or even Pen... I'm a friend of your mothers, Nephew Auburn. And that," Penny raised Auburn and pointed at her wife, "is Wife Winter, but you get to call her your Aunt too. I guess I'm not just a friend of your mothers, I'm actually...," Penny's eyes widened and she **beamed** at Ruby. "I'm their sister-in-law!"

Ruby gasped.

"Oh my dust! We're sister-in-laws!" she hissed, careful to keep her voice down. Blake had told everyone that they had to be exceedingly quiet so that they wouldn't upset the babies, especially Adolpha.

"Are... are they just now realizing this?" Winter whispered.

"Yes, they are," Weiss replied, shaking her head fondly as she looked at Ruby.

"That's awesome!" Ruby hissed, leaning closer so that she could be against Penny's side.

Penny gave her a small smile as she held Auburn, but her attention was on the baby, whom she was cradling with a sort of reverence on her face.

Velvet was currently holding Akio, but she suddenly started to cry. Velvet stayed quiet as she looked down at the baby, tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked at her.

Coco quickly handed Adolpha over to Fox before she turned to Velvet.

"Hey, Velvs, are you alright?" she whispered, wrapping her arm around her wife gently.

"It's just... he's so beautiful, and...," Velvet set her hand on her stomach gently, a small smile on her face.

Coco smiled as she leaned down, placing a quick kiss on the crest of Velvet's head.

Velvet hummed happily at the motion, leaning against her wife as she held Akio in between them.

Oscar let out a quiet sound of awe as Yang passed over Aella to him.

"Do I get to be Uncle Oscar?" he asked.

"Definitely," Yang replied.

Nora suddenly raced over to Yang, skidding to a stop and holding out her arms excitedly.

"Can I hold one?" she asked.

Yang glanced at Blake, finding the fear on the cat faunus' face.

"Yeah, yeah you can hold one."

Yang reached out and grabbed Jin from Ilia, passing the large baby over to Nora, who let out a quiet, excited laugh as she held the baby gently.

"Hi, Jinny Jin!" Nora whispered enthusiastically. "I'm Aunty Nora! And I'm going to be your **favorite** aunt! One day, when you're a little bit older, I'm going to get to tell you so many stories! So, **so** many stories! Like the time we all saved the world, how Yang lost her arm...," Nora paused for a moment, her eyes becoming far more caring as she looked down at the baby, "how your mothers are some of the best people I've ever met, and how they risked their lives to save the world... you and your siblings are going to be the happiest children in the world, because you're so lucky to have them as your parents. There's nobody better to raise you seven!"

Yang set her hand on Nora's shoulder, tears in her eyes.

"Thanks, Nora," she whispered.

Nora gave her an excited grin.

"No problem. But you **should** know that I'm not only going to tell them the good stories. I'm going to tell them **everything** about you for. _Everything_."

Yang winced slightly, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Remind me why we let you around our children again?" Yang asked with a small grin.

Nora rolled her eyes.

"Because I'm amazing, that's why!" she whispered, rocking Jin back and forth.

Yang rolled her eyes before she turned to talk to her father, who was now holding Akio gently, staring down at him as if he was the most perfect creature in the world.

Yang smiled gently as she took a few steps backward, setting herself down on the bed and watching their children being passed around between friends and family.

After a minute, Weiss and Ruby sat down beside Yang, Weiss leaning against her side while Ruby curled up at Weiss' side.

Blake was milling around the room and watching intently as the babies were moved from person to person. She knew that everyone was being careful, but it was still nerve racking to watch their children being passed around.

Eventually, Blake glanced back at her wives and smiled gently when she saw them all sitting there together in a group.

Blake then moved over to join them, dropping down on their laps and sprawling out in a way that was very akin to a cat.

Ruby giggled and reached her hand down tiredly, running her hands through Blake's hair.

The four laid there together for a long time, enjoying not just each other's company, but also watching their new family as they moved around the room. Their children, their parents, and their friends were all here today to come together to create the perfect family that none of them had had before.

And, for once, everything seemed perfect.


	4. Home Sweet Home

Team RWBY was still laying on the bed when the door opened, and a nurse stuck their head into the room.

Blake let out a quiet sigh, knowing what was to come.

They could only stay with their children in the hospital for so long before they were expected to leave and return to their house with...

With seven newborn babies.

Blake grimaced slightly, but she stood and made her way over to the children.

"It's time for checkout," the nurse said, making Yang groan.

Blake rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket, fishing out the keys to the van to make sure that she had them.

After she finished, she put her hands on the first crib, reaching in gently and picking up Adolpha.

Adolpha's eyes opened and she squirmed a bit. Blake started to purr, and Adolpha immediately giggled and let her eyes fall shut, falling back asleep.

Ruby, Weiss, and Yang each stood to grab a baby each. There was scrambling in the room as people tried to grab a baby to carry out to the van. Despite the others trying to get to them, Kali, Ghira, and Taiyang were the first to get to the cribs.

Blake watched hesitantly as she saw her mother grab onto Lavey, holding the littlest girl gently in her arms.

"Calm down, Blake, I carried you when you were a baby," Kali said.

Blake rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but she's more important, so don't hurt her."

Blake turned to the door, and she found that all three of her wives staring at her lovingly.

The cat faunus gave them small smiles before she stepped toward the exit, Sun holding open the door for team RWBY with his tail.

"Are you sure you two don't need to sit down?" the monkey faunus asked Ruby and Weiss, who both rolled their eyes.

"We're fine," Weiss said, waving her hand dismissively as she walked, carrying Jin lightly in her arms.

Under normal circumstances, Blake would have been obbsessing over taking care of her wives, but she was rather distracted by her new top priority: the children that they were carrying.

The trip down to the car was calm, surprisingly, and Blake opened the backseat door. She'd set up the baby seats the night before, and they had looked oddly creepy when there were seven backwards facing seats in the back of their white van without children in them. Blake hopped into the car first, walking all the way to the back before she seat down Adolpha in her seat.

Blake then went back to grab the next child, not wanting anyone else to put the babies in their seats. She had studied the seats for **hours** (which sounded stupid now, but she was glad that she had, just because it made her feel safer now that she was actually having to use them), and she didn't know if she trusted anyone else to strap her children in.

Blake was about to grab the baby that Yang held, Aella, but she hesitated, glancing at Weiss, who was holding Jin.

"Are we really going to do this?" the former heiress asked with a raised eyebrow.

"But she looks so sad when she's not next to Adolpha," Ruby whined, staring at the armadillo faunus baby with loving eyes.

"But we don't want her to grow dependent, right?" Weiss asked cautiously, clearly divided on whether or not they should do it.

"But isn't sibling bonding important?" Yang asked, smirking.

"Yeah!" Ruby said, leaning against Yang's side with a broad grin.

Weiss sighed and passed Jin over to Blake.

"You'd think she'd be tired of Adolpha after spending almost nine months right beside her," Weiss muttered.

Blake chuckled as she went back into the van, setting down Jin next to Adolpha, the wolf faunus still gently sleeping in her seat.

The others were set down after Jin, Blake only seeming to care about where Lavey and Aella went, putting the two smallest babies closest to the front so that she could see them easier when she was sitting in the front seat. Clearly, she was becoming more than a little overcautious with the two due to their size, but none of her wives could find themselves arguing with her precautions.

The four said their goodbyes to their friends and family quickly before they hurried into the van, Yang sliding into the driver's seat while Blake anxiously looked behind her at the babies. They were still all asleep, which she thought was a good thing.

If nothing else, they were still on the same sleep schedule, right?

As if Blake's thoughts had been a curse, Aella's eyes opened, and she began to cry loudly.

Yang pulled over, and Weiss hurried to the back, seeing if their child was hungry.

She wasn't. But she **did** need her diaper changed.

Weiss smirked just slightly, throwing open the driver's door and putting Aella in Yang's arms.

"Diaper master, your time has come."

"Are you three seriously going to keep calling me that?" the blond hissed, pulling out the diaper bag and starting to change Aella.

"Oh, definitely," Ruby replied, smirking.

Yang groaned.

She changed the diaper quickly, clearly able to do so at such a speed because of how much Blake had had her practice before the babies had been born.

Weiss set Aella back down in her seat and went to the front. The van started up again, and crying echoed through the car once again.

Yang turned off the van, sighing.

Blake turned in her seat, eyes narrowing when she saw that Akio was crying.

"Oh for the love of dust," Weiss muttered, reaching back to grab the first born son and holding him gently.

"Does he need his diaper changed?" Yang called.

"No. He's not hungry either."

"Then what's his problem?" Blake asked, frowning.

"I don-"

Weiss cut herself off with a shriek.

"Weiss, are you-"

Ruby stopped speaking as she turned, eyes widening with a mixture of shock and disgust when she realized that Akio had thrown up on Weiss.

There was a moment of silence.

"At least he didn't throw up in the van," Yang muttered.

Adolpha started to cry, and Blake groaned.

"Weiss, you **know** you can't make sudden loud noises around Adolpha! It hurts her ears!" Blake hissed, unbuckling and hurrying to the back of the van to grab the wolf faunus.

As soon as Adolpha was unbuckled, Jin started to cry.

Blake hesitated before she took a seat on the ground next to Jin, holding up Adolpha in an attempt to make both baby girls stop crying.

The noise had, apparently, woken up Lavey, and now she was sobbing.

Ruby hurried to the youngest girl and made shushing noises, gently rocking the newborn back and forth slowly.

Crystal began to sob, and Yang let out a sigh, reaching past Weiss and grabbing the oldest triplet, rocking back and forth while subtly sniffing the girl to see if she needed to be changed. She did, and Yang groaned, setting down the baby softly before starting to put a new diaper on her.

"Do you think it's always going to be like this?" Ruby asked quietly, hoping not to wake up one of the few remaining sleeping babies (which included only Auburn and... dust, now that Ruby was put on the spot, she realized that it was **just** Auburn that was still in the land of slumber, which made her sigh quietly).

"Like what?" Weiss asked, having set Akio down so that she could slip off her shirt while making a disgusted sound while she looked at the vomit.

"One of them getting upset and waking up the others," Ruby said.

"Oh, definitely," Yang replied, glancing over at her sister and Weiss to check on them.

She hesitated when she saw that her wife still had her shirt off. Yang gained a dopey smile, even as she rocked Crystal and put her hand next to Auburn in his baby seat.

Weiss seemed to sense that Yang was looking at her, and she glancing back at the blond.

Weiss groaned and shook her head sufferingly.

"Yang, I have a giant bandage from the c section, my hair's a mess, I just gave birth to four of our children, and I still haven't showered since we were last at home. You can stop staring."

"I **could** stop staring, but then I'd be missing the view," Yang said with a smirk.

Weiss rolled her eyes sufferingly, only growing more frustrated when Ruby and Blake joined Yang and watched the former heiress.

"What she's trying to say," Blake said gently, "is that you're still just as beautiful as you ever were, if not more so."

Weiss flushed and forced her gaze down to the baby in her arms.

"Thanks, Blake," she whispered, a small, fond smile on her face.

Yang groaned quietly as she set down Crystal, having finally changed her diaper.

"How come she gets all the credit?! I'm the one that said it!"

"Yeah, but she said it way better and way sweeter," Weiss replied with ease, smirking at her blond wife.

Yang sighed and shook her head.

The others quickly put down the babies and all but threw themselves into the front seat (but definitely not before Blake checked on Akio and made sure that it was regular baby throw up instead of, like... sick baby throw up).

"Come on, we have to hurry before one of them starts crying again," Weiss said. "Step on it, Yang."

The blond nodded and sped down the road. They were on their street when-

"Son of a-"

Blake cut herself off and suddenly threw herself over the seats. She hadn't put on her seatbelt in case they had to stop again, and that allowed her to vault over the seats before Yang pulled over.

"What?! What's wrong?!" Ruby called.

"Yang, pull over!" Weiss hissed, careful not to be too loud in case she would upset Adolpha again, and that was **always** bad, because it ended up upsetting Jin, who then started crying, and when two babies started to cry, Aella would join in and then the others would all come tumbling down and everything would be a loud mess while team RWBY scrambled to calm them down and see why the whole mess had started in the first place.

"What's wrong?!" Ruby asked again.

Blake was leaned over beside Aella, scrambling to take off the little baby's seat belt.

When she finally had, Blake let out a sigh of relief, lifting her into the air and checking her sides, running a gentle finger down the fur that had extended from between her arms and legs.

"She opened her gliders and got them all tangled up in the seatbelt. She almost flipped herself over when Yang turned," Blake said, gently returning to the front of the car and taking a seat with Aella still in her arms.

"Just get us home, Yang," Weiss said with a sigh. She ran her hand through her hair, which was surprisingly, and uncharacteristically, down. "I'm so tired."

"Then you and Rubes can take a nap when we get there, Angel. Blake and I can take care of these little guys," Yang said as she pulled into the driveway finally.

When the blond finally put the car in park, everyone let out sighs of relief.

What was supposed to be a ten to fifteen minute drive from the hospital to their place had ended up being almost an hour due to their stops and emergencies that they had to take care of on the way home.

Blake opened the car door and headed inside first, still holding Aella in her arms.

Aella hadn't retracted her gliders yet, and she seemed to find them fascinating as she experimentally moved her arms and legs. The movements caused her gliders to swish and sway, catching a little on the wind as Blake walked to the door.

The cat faunus immediately hunched over her child and blocked the wind so that it wouldn't damage her tiny gliders before Aella was big enough to use them properly.

Blake stepped inside and let out a quiet laugh as she watched Aella continue to play with her gliders.

"Those things are going to be annoying, aren't they?" Blake whispered, stepping toward the nursery and kicking the door open with her foot. "You're going to use them to annoy us **so much** , and you're going to think that you're just _so funny_ , aren't you?"

Blake set Aella down on a familiar crib, which she had padded a few weeks ago in preparation for this moment. On the front of the crib, Aella's name had already been painted, and Blake smiled gently as she looked down at Aella, who was still wrapped in her pink blanket from the hospital. They'd have to change the babies into the clothes they'd bought later, but that could be saved for once Weiss and Ruby were asleep. They were both exhausted.

Once Blake had put the first baby down, she went back outside, passing her wives, to grab one of the three that were still in their car seats.

Once all seven were set in their own cribs, Blake reached out to grab onto Weiss and Ruby's hands to lead them to the bedroom.

"You two have a nice long nap, take as long as you need, while Yang and I take care of the kids, okay?"

"Okay," Weiss mumbled.

Ruby was already laying down on the bed, fast asleep. She was even snoring.

Weiss joined her a moment later, and Blake slipped back out of the room so that she could help Yang.

Everything was great! The kids were home, finally, and the house looked so much brighter now and-

Blake opened the door to the nursery and was met with the sound of loud crying.

Yang spun when she heard the door open.

"Blake! Blake, you're back! You took forever! Quick, help me clean this up!"

Blake blinked down at the obscenely large pile of throw up on the ground.

"What... I wasn't even gone for two minutes! What happened?!"

"Well," Yang was running around the room and trying to calm the children, and Blake went to do the same, "first Aella started to cry, I think she's an attention hog, and that scared Akio, and he started to cry, which upset Adolpha and then Jin started to cry and then Crystal and then Lavey... and then finally Auburn woke up for the first time since the hospital, and... well, I think that he's a puker. He threw up as soon as he started crying, and then... then it was just a chain reaction and... long story short, a bunch of them threw up, and they need to get out of these dirty blankets and into their clothes. Help me?"

Blake let out a long sigh, nodding.

She should have probably been shocked with the sequence of events, and she would have been the day before, but now it already seemed... like the chaotic normal that their lives had settled into.

"No, no, no, no, Auburn, don't throw up again, please!" Yang hissed quietly, all too aware that Adolpha could be set off by her screaming. They had all learned that lesson. It was rather frustrating that one of their **seven** (dust, Yang could even hear her wives and sister saying it _that_ way in her head) children got upset with noise, considering all of their children were loud.

Yang rocked Auburn back and forth gently.

"I still can't believe he didn't throw up in the car," Yang muttered. "Do you think he'd be better in water? Dust, maybe that would help him be less sick to his stomach."

"You know we can't take that risk, Yang," Blake muttered, in the process of changing Aella, who was exceedingly wiggly.

So maybe things weren't going with the ease that Blake and Yang had promised, but that was alright, they could handle it one their own.

Probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a mental image:  
> One or two of the children have this giant growth spurt and they outgrow the car seat before the rest of the children and they're just sitting in the regular seat while their siblings look at them like "this asshole-"
> 
> Also, and more importantly, do you all want me to focus on the first few weeks for a few chapters or speed up some? I can do either, just want some suggestions!


	5. The Nap

Blake let out a sigh and shook her head. They had finally gotten the seven to get back to sleep, after almost thirty minutes of changing their clothes, diapers, and cleaning up vomit.

All in all, it had been...

horrible.

Just absolutely horrible. There was no other way to describe it.

But Yang could safely say that she loved her children unconditionally now, considering she had just spent an uncomfortably long amount of time cleaning vomit off of the floor, her babies, her clothes, herself, and her wife.

Nothing tested her love for the seven like that, but that hadn't made her smile any less broad as she watched them all sleep.

Yang leaned against the wall and slowly slid to the ground so that she could sit down, but before she could, a loud cry stopped her in her tracks.

"But we just got them to stop crying!" Yang whined.

"A parent's job is never done, and we have seven kids, so get up and help me," Blake replied, tiptoeing across the room to avoid upsetting Adolpha.

Blake stopped when she reached Lavey, leaning down over the smallest baby, whom she picked up gently and held lightly, cradling her neck worriedly.

"What is it?" Yang asked.

"I don't know, Yang, I can't read her mind," Blake replied, her voice low and quiet as she tried to soothe the child. "She's not tired, she's not missing us, and her diaper is clean..."

Lavey reached up toward Blake's chest, tiny little hand moving as if to grab something.

Blake looked up and met her wife's gaze, eyes wide.

"Are... are you telling me to go wake Rubes up? Because I know I saw it last night but it's still weird to see my sister breast feeding."

Blake rolled her eyes sufferingly.

"Yang, you've gotta get over that if you're going to help raise these kids, because your sister gave birth to three of them."

"I know, I know! But still, it would not be a good idea to wake her up right now."

"But Lavey's so tiny. She needs to eat, Yang!" Blake hissed.

"Then you wake Rubes up."

"Can't."

"Why not?"

"I'm holding Lavey."

"But that's why we're waking her up! Just take Lavey to her!"

Blake rolled her eyes, scrambling for a reason to get Yang to wake Ruby up. She couldn't find one, so she reluctantly stepped out of the room to wake up her wife.

Just as she left the nursery, she stuck her head back inside with a small smirk on her face.

"You know... me having to go with Lavey means that you need to take care of any emergencies that might pop up."

Yang's eyes widened dramatically and she called out for Blake to wait, but the cat faunus was already out of the room.

Yang cursed under her breath and turned to face her children, watching them as if she was expecting them to suddenly all burst into tears.

There was a minute of blissful silence where Yang watched them all closely, looking for any sign that the six children in the room might need her, but didn't find any.

She did, however, see that several of them were already back to sleep.

Yang had read somewhere that newborns slept about sixteen hours per day... which was good, right? That way the four of them wouldn't have to worry about constant crying, right?

But if seven of them were going to be sleeping sixteen hours a day... there was always the chance that they would all decide to sleep at different times, leading to team RWBY never being able to sleep at all.

Just as Yang had gained a sense of security watching the six of them, the front door opened.

"Hello? Anybody home?" A loud voice called.

Yang's eyes widened and she raced over to Adolpha-

Too late.

The baby wolf faunus was already crying loudly, which set off Jin, which set off Aella, which then caused a chain reaction.

Yang cursed and hurried out of the room, skidding to a stop and glaring at the person who had been so carelessly screamed in a house filled with so many newborns. So, so many newborns.

She was met with Elm and Qrow standing at the doorway with confused looks on their faces. Yang realized that the two of them had been at Atlas for the last week, and Ruby hadn't called them.

"What's going on?" Elm asked. Loudly.

Yang hurried over and slapped a hand over her new aunt's mouth with a small glare.

"Keep it down! Dust, do you have to be so loud?!" she hissed.

"What?" Qrow asked.

Yang rolled her eyes and reached out to grab both of them by the wrist, tugging them into the nursery.

Yang let go of them as soon as she stepped inside, hurrying over to Adolpha first and soothing her. When she stopped crying, Jin followed suit, and Yang then was left to race over to Auburn. She wanted to make sure the youngest stopped crying before he threw up again. Speaking of, maybe he of all their children needed to eat considering how much of his food he had thrown up earlier.

"They... they're here! You had them!" Elm cried excitedly.

Yang glared at her harshly and held one hand up to her lips to quiet her as she moved onto Akio.

"If you two can't be quiet, you're going to have to leave," Yang whispered, "Adolpha's ears are very sensitive, and when you get her upset, everyone else starts crying and its a real mess that I don't want to deal with right now."

"Oh," Elm said quietly, "I didn't know."

Yang waved her off as she tried to quiet the children down.

"Wait, why are there only seven? Where's Lavey?" Qrow asked. He had deduced which one wasn't there by reading the names on the cribs and finding the one that was empty.

"She's with Blake and Ruby. She was hungry," Yang replied. "If I weren't trying to get them to quiet down, I'd offer for you to hold them."

The door opened quietly.

"I leave for five minutes with Lavey, and everything goes wrong? What happened?" Blake asked playfully, reaching down to set the small girl into her crib.

"Qrow and Elm messed it up," Yang muttered. "Some great uncle and great aunt they make."

"Well, I'm sure it was a fluke," Blake said. She hesitated, and she directed her fierce gaze on the pair. "At least, I hope it was, otherwise we might have some problems."

"Blake, stop threatening them," Yang said softly.

Blake rolled her eyes, leaning against Yang as the blond looped an arm around her shoulders.

"Well, I'm a tiger mom now. I have to threaten someone, don't I?" Blake asked.

"More like a snow leopard mom!" Yang hissed, giving her wife finger guns.

Blake stared at her blankly for a moment before she pulled away from her, shaking her head.

"Nope, that's it, I'm leaving."

Yang laughed, but she hesitated when Blake started to walk out of the room.

"Wait, what?!" she hissed. "Where are you going?!"

"The store."

"Are you leaving to 'buy milk' the day after your children were born?" Yang asked incredulously.

"No, we just don't have enough diapers. I didn't think that they'd have that much poop in them. I mean, they're so tiny," Blake said, rolling her eyes.

"You're not leaving me here with all seven of them while Ruby and Weiss sleep!" Yang hissed.

"Qrow and Elm are here," Blake pointed out.

"Yeah, but they've literally only caused trouble. Take Adolpha. She'll start crying if you aren't purring somewhere nearby anyways."

"But if I take her, then I have to take Jin," Blake replied. "And I need to get a lot of stuff. Plus, you're making me take a newborn baby to a grocery store?! Dust, Yang! We have to sanitize our hands before we even touch them!"

"Well if you're not taking them, then you're not going to the store!" Yang hissed.

Blake threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

"But if I don't go, then we won't have the necessities! Is it really too much to ask for you to watch the kids?"

Yang sighed and reached out, grabbing Blake's hands in her own, clearly not wanting to upset the cat faunus.

She looked up at Blake, and the cat faunus hesitated as she saw tears in Yang's eyes.

"I just.. I don't want to mess up, alright? I don't want to do something wrong and hurt them, do something that will mess them up for the rest of their lives. And you're... you're the prepared one, Blake. I just... I just feel so much safer when I know that you're here watching to make sure that I'm not doing something that I shouldn't be."

Blake stopped immediately, the flames of her anger immediately going out.

"Oh... I'm sorry, Yang, I just... how about I call my parents and ask them to pick up some supplies for us? I know that they'll be more than a little excited at the prospect of being able to help," Blake said, knowing that her parents had been eager to do anything to help with or care for their grandchildren.

Yang gave Blake a small, thankful smile.

"Thanks, Blake."

"But I think I should point out that I was going to leave you here with all seven of them. Alone."

"That's what we were just discussing," Yang said.

"Yeah, but you also said that I was the prepared one. The one that probably studied how to take care of children longer than I should have. And I was going to leave you in charge of watching them for however long I was gone," Blake tightened her grip on Yang's hands and pulled her closer. "That's how much I believed in you being capable of taking care of them on your own."

Yang sniffled at the words and fell into the cat faunus' arms, putting her head on Blake's shoulder gently, holding her tightly.

"Thanks, Kitkat," she whispered.

Blake was about to respond, but she heard cries starting to reverberate through the room.

"I think that Lavey wasn't the only one that was hungry," Blake said. "Your turn to go wake them up."

"Do I have to wake up Weiss? Maybe Ruby can just take care of all seven of them-"

Blake rolled her eyes and shoved the blond out of her arms.

"Go get them."

When Yang had trudged out of the room, Blake pulled out her scroll and sent a message to her parents that detailed exactly what she needed them to bring back from the store.

They had a lot of things to get in place.


	6. Struggles

Blake and Yang had been watching the babies for almost eight hours now, and the sun had finally set.

Blake grabbed Yang's hand and dragged her out of the room, hurrying toward where Weiss and Ruby had been sleeping pretty much all day (save for when the two had had to be woken up to feed their children).

Blake opened the bedroom door and pulled Yang inside.

Ruby and Weiss groaned and rolled over in bed, pulling closer to each other.

"Your turn," Blake muttered, flopping onto the bed.

"Oh, like it's your turn to give birth next?" Weiss asked, not getting up.

"Hey, you decided you wanted to carry them, not our fault they turned out to be quadruplets," Yang replied.

"Why do we have to take turns?" Ruby muttered, pulling closer to Blake.

"Because they're only a little over twenty-four hours old and our newborns need constant supervision to make sure they don't die, so you two go in there and watch them for a few hours while Yang and I take a nap," Blake said, pushing Ruby away from herself and curling up closer to the blond.

"By the way, there's pumps in there, and if you two don't want us to use formula, you're going to have to use them because there's way too many children," Blake said, yawning. She'd been awake for... dust, she might have been awake for almost the entire time since her children had been born, and she definitely needed some time to sleep now.

Yang smiled at the cat faunus, pulling her closer.

"Have fun, you two," Yang muttered.

Blake purred against her, and Yang's eyes suddenly widened.

"Angel, bring me the baby monitor, I've got an idea."

Weiss grumbled and reached over to grab what Yang had gotten.

"No, no, the one that transmits noise," Yang said, waving her hand.

"What? Why?" Ruby asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

Yang took the baby monitor from Weiss and set it down next to Blake. On the other end, purrs rumbled through the radio.

"That's... actually a really good idea," Weiss said.

"You don't have to sound so surprised," Yang muttered, rolling her eyes as she looked down at Blake, who had already fallen asleep.

Despite the rough day, she was still purring deeply. It rumbled against Yang's side that Blake laid beside, transmitting clearly over the baby monitor.

"I don't think she slept since they were born," Yang muttered, running her hand over Blake's ears.

"I can't blame her," Ruby said, stretching. She winced at the twinge in her scar, and Yang watched her worriedly.

"You two rethinking your decision to not let us have caffeine?" Yang asked as Weiss and Ruby changed.

Yang's eyes stayed on Weiss, and she smirked. The former heiress rolled her eyes.

"If we can't have it, then you can't either."

"Yeah, but if we have caffeine, we'll be less tired, and if we're less tired, then we can watch the children longer, and if we watch the kids longer, you two can sleep longer and not need caffeine as much."

Weiss and Ruby stared at Yang. The only sound in the room was Blake's purring and the echoing sound that transmitted over the baby monitor. Yang distantly wondered if she should record the sound so that she could play it for the babies when they needed to sleep.

"Dang it, Yang, why are you finally making sense for once in your life?" Weiss muttered, heading toward the door.

"Does that mean that I'm right?" Yang called quietly.

"Fine!" Weiss hissed. "When we wake you two up at midnight, I'll bring coffee."

"Don't drink any! And you're not waking us up at midnight! Our shift is at two!"

Weiss grumbled at the words, and Yang honestly couldn't tell if she had agreed or disagreed.

"I love you two!" Yang called after them.

Weiss and Ruby hesitated at the door finally, and both turned around.

"We love you both too," Weiss and Ruby said together, both smiling slightly.

Yang yawned as the door fell shut, and she curled up closer to the cat faunus.

A few minutes later, Weiss and Ruby were sitting in the nursery, and they could hear the gentle sounds of Yang's snores joining Blake's loud purring.

Weiss had set the baby monitor right beside Adolpha's crib, knowing that the baby wolf faunus would be comforted by the sound the most. Also, it had a high chance of drowning out any loud noises that the other people in the house might accidentally make.

The two hadn't been in the room for more than five minutes before the babies were all clearly attempting to make it known that they either needed their diapers changed, were hungry, or needed attention. The last one was, predictably, Aella, their little attention hog. It was surprisingly fitting that their fourth born (and therefore middle child) was **literally** crying out for their attention.

Their eight hour shift was grueling and slow moving. They were shocked to see Auburn throw up, and Ruby had raced into the bedroom to wake up Blake and Yang to see if they needed to go to the hospital for the youngest child. Blake had grumbled at the interruption, but told them that Auburn was a puker, throwing up whenever he got upset or started to cry or just... just **felt** like doing it. Blake had already checked to make sure that him vomiting was alright when they were at the hospital, considering he'd puked twice before they left. She hadn't expected Auburn to continue with his puking, but they didn't need to be worried about it.

Other than having to take care of a lot of issues from their children and feeding them (not to mention the pump), the two came back to bed **exhausted** , flopping down and then shoving Blake and Yang out of the bed.

The pattern continued like this after Blake and Yang got up, but the cat faunus stayed up past her shift, letting the exhausted Weiss sleep in while switching partners. When Ruby had joined her, the cat faunus had given her a fond smile and enveloped her in a hug, clearly having missed her little wife while she had been stranded with Yang.

The days passed both quickly and slowly, time seeming to have no meaning as the four slept in shifts and watched their children. Fires arose, not literally (no, they probably wouldn't have to deal with their children starting those until they were at **least** two), and the four got into the steady rhythm of putting them out.

Adolpha didn't like loud noises, but the recording of Blake's purrs usually calmed her down if Blake wasn't there.

Jin got upset when Adolpha did, but also when the room's temperature dropped, so the four made sure to keep the room warmer.

But they couldn't keep it too warm, because then Auburn would start vomiting to let them know that he didn't like it. Auburn also disliked it when the room got too dry, and the four had to make sure that it was slightly humid. one day, Yang had had to go out to buy a humidifier. The four thought that Auburn probably liked having the humidity due to his being a swordfish faunus.

Aella had to be watched closely, because she often had her gliders appear at random points, which could cause her clothing to rip or almost cause her to flip over, and a flipped over baby was **not** a good thing. She had to be watched avidly. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that Aella was an attention hog that was constantly crying only to get her mothers to hold her. She seemed particularly fond of Ruby's embrace, always reaching her tiny little hands up to play with her cloak. A few times, Aella had looked at her cloak and then activated her gliders with a playful giggle, as if she was trying to imitate her mother's appearance.

Akio's issue wasn't as odd as the others, considering he had to be watched to make sure he didn't sneeze too much. He appeared to have bad allergies, and the four mothers had to take showers and sanitize greatly before entering the nursery, especially if they had been outside. They'd even taken to washing the blankets and their own jackets daily to make sure that Akio's allergies weren't activated suddenly, considering his sneezing and wheezing was almost horrifying to listen to and watch.

Crystal was a lot like Jin, considering she didn't like the cold. She was prone to shakes and sneezing when the temperature dropped by more than one degree. She also had the curse of being a light sleeper, meaning that she was usually the first to wake up from a nap and demand to be fed, which would wake up the others and even upset Adolpha if they weren't quick to take care of it. Crystal was even a picky eater, often refusing to eat even when her mothers **knew** that she was hungry, and had to coaxed into accepting the meal.

Lavey didn't seem to have any issues of her own, other than being exceptionally tiny. Her small size often made her mothers uneasy, and she was watched extra close to ensure that she didn't get harmed. Blake even seemed to think that a gentle breeze would disrupt Lavey, which made her often cradle Lavey in her arms while the baby slept, just wanting to know that the smallest child was safe.

The four had gotten to know the triggers of the seven children quite well by the end of the first week, and they had even gotten a pattern of shifting schedules of sleep. They often switched partners, not wanting anyone to feel as if they were missing out on time with their partners.

Despite that, the four of them hadn't slept in the same bed together since that first night in the hospital, and it was starting to wear on them. They slept better together, and they missed knowing that all four of them were there together with nothing keeping them apart.

That's why, after a week, they decided to call in a few baby sitters. Just for the night! They just wanted one good night of sleep together before they got back into the regular routine they'd grown accustomed to.

After a few hours, they'd be right back to the pattern.

The four just wanted a little bit of time to think about each other instead of the seven children they were starting to get to know. They hadn't been out of the house since... well, the only times they had gone out of the house since the hospital was to pick up a few things, but mostly they'd sent out the grandparents to get stuff. Team RWBY hadn't been to beacon either, and they still had nine weeks left on their maternity leave before they'd have to come back and leave their seven children in the daycare.

But the four were going to have the chance to think about something else, to talk about something else, with each other all together that night. It would be a welcome relief, but also...

The four found themselves realizing that they were going to miss the four when they slept.


	7. Babysitting

"And make sure to keep the noise down! And the temperature has to be between seventy-three and seventy-five, but there's no thermostat, so you have to use the thermometer in the corner and then-"

Taiyang rolled his eyes at Blake's ranting.

"I've taken care of children before, Blake. I raised Ruby and Yang, and they were both a handful and a half each."

Blake rolled her eyes at the words and glanced at Weiss, who was leaning against her side.

"Blakey, why don't you just come on. We can trust him," Ruby said, Weiss nodding along.

"It's not about trust. There's **seven** of them. **Seven**!" Blake hissed.

"And we're leaving three people to watch them. People that have _raised their own children_ ," Yang said, grabbing Blake by the hand and tugging her out of the room. "Also, you need to stop saying it like that."

" _Seven_ ," Ruby hissed quietly, leaning closer to her sister.

Yang grimaced before she suddenly grinned.

"Wait! You're not pregnant anymore!" Yang cried, smacking her sister in the back of the head.

Ruby let out a sound of shock, clearly not used to Yang doing that anymore.

"Hey!" Ruby whined.

Blake rolled her eyes at the pair, sending one last glance to the children in the nursery before she moved out.

"Be careful with Lavey, she's super small!" Blake finally called as the door fell shut.

Taiyang turned to face Ghira and Kali, smiling. He clapped his hands together before rubbing the palms against one another.

"Alright! Now that they're gon-"

Before Taiyang could finish speaking, Adolpha burst out crying. His clapping had been loud enough to upset her delicate ears.

"I've got it," Kali whispered, moving forward to grab the baby wolf faunus. "Blake was like this too. Their little ears were so sensitive and cute."

"Blake said that Adolpha likes purring," Ghira offered.

"You need to get her to stop before Jin wakes up," Taiyang said quickly, hurrying over to the second born child.

Kali began to purr, pulling Adolpha toward her chest and slowly rocking back and forth happily.

Adolpha hesitated for a moment, Adolpha's gray eyes staring up at her before she brought one foot up, which she grabbed with her chubby little hand.

"Aw, look at her-"

Adolpha burst out crying, squirming a bit in her arms and crying louder as if she was trying to say "THIS IS NOT MY MOTHER PURRING PLEASE HELP! FELLOW MEMBERS OF MY BABY ARMY, RISE UP AND REVOLT!"

As if to solidify the words that Kali had imagined, Jin began to bawl her eyes out, and Taiyang grabbed her, attempting to sooth the child.

Aella joined in the crying, which then set off the others.

Auburn made a gagging sound and Ghira hurried over to him, holding him up so he wouldn't choke on his own vomit when the inevitable hit.

Auburn puked, and Ghira grimaced when it hit him, and he had to hold in a disgusted groan.

"Did... did he just throw up?" Kali asked, looking over.

"Yeah, but it looks like there's...," Ghira looked down at the floor and saw- "puppy pads? Does he throw up so much that they put down puppy pads?"

"Yeah, that was Weiss' idea. I don't... I didn't believe that they actually worked, but it looks like it did," Taiyang said.

Kali made an odd sound to the side, and Ghira looked over at his wife.

"Kali, are you-"

Kali held Adolpha over her head before she threw up.

"Did... did she just throw up?" Taiyang asked.

"She's a sympathy vomiter," Ghira said with a sigh, setting down Auburn and grabbed a small Kleenex to pat at the baby's mouth, cleaning off the remaining vomit from his lips.

"I still can't believe that the puppy pads worked," Taiyang muttered as he set Jin back down in the crib. He then moved over to grab the dirty puppy pads and throwing them out (apparently they had so much trash that they had a trash can in the side of the room). He hurried to grab another puppy pad and set it down on the ground. It was clear where to put them, because it was the only two places that weren't covered.

-

Blake was holding Weiss in her arms, face buried in her hair as they watched some movie that Blake wasn't paying attention to. None of them were paying attention to it, instead curled up next to one another, missing having the opportunity to be all together.

Blake's ear twitched as a familiar sound filled them.

She sat up immediately, grabbing Weiss by the hand.

"Adolpha's awake. She's crying."

"She is?" Ruby asked, sitting up as well.

"We should go check on her," Blake said, swinging her legs off of the bed.

"We can trust them, Blake," Yang said gently, reaching out to put a hand on the faunus' shoulder.

"Yeah, she's right. You're stressed. We're **all** stressed, and it's important to take a break," Weiss said, setting her head on Blake's shoulder and grabbing Ruby by the hand. She slowly guided them back to laying down.

"You're right, you're right. I need to calm down-" Blake cut herself off when another sound met her ears. "Auburn just threw up."

"Oh my dust," Weiss whispered. "What if he was laying down?"

Yang had already vaulted off the bed, grabbing Weiss by the hand and helping her to her feet, clearly worried about her wife's scar.

"I thought we were going to trust them," Blake said, frowning as Ruby rolled off the bed quickly.

"Auburn just threw up! This is important!" Yang hissed.

Blake knew that Auburn threw up constantly, but she found herself agreeing despite herself and leapt to her feet, grabbing onto Ruby's hand and racing out of the room.

-

The door opened silently but swiftly, Yang standing in the doorway with wide eyes.

"Is he okay? Is Auburn alright?" Yang asked, skidding to a stop beside her youngest son, reaching her metallic hand into his crib.

Auburn started to giggle at the action, reaching his little hand up and trying to play with one of her fingers. Yang had realized early on that her children always enjoyed when her metallic hand was in the mix, loving to play with it or, in Aella's case, trying to fit an entire finger in her tiny little mouth.

"What? Of course he's alright," Taiyang said, leaning against the wall and trying to act like nothing had gone wrong. He was smiling and had his arms crossed against his chest, foot resting against the wall.

"Wait, Blakey, does it feel a little-"

Ruby spun to face the cat faunus, both of their eyes going wide.

"Did you turn off the humidifier?!" Blake and Ruby hissed together.

Yang reached her foot out behind her, not taking her hand out of the crib where Auburn was still playing with it, and her foot gently flipped a switch on the humidifier.

"Is he alright?" Weiss asked, looking up from where she had been fixing Crystal's blanket, making sure that it was covering her and that she wasn't too cold.

"Yeah, he's alright. I think we turned it on in time," Yang whispered, glancing over her shoulder at the humidifier.

Blake's Aura seemed to sense that someone was staring at her, and she glanced over to see that her mother was holding Adolpha, and her gray eyes were trained on Blake. Her hands wiggled, her fingers opening and closing as she attempted to get Blake's attention without crying. It was always hard for Adolpha's parents to tell when she wanted attention, considering she hardly ever cried.

Blake hurried over and grabbed the baby gently from her mother, hardly paying attention to her. Blake started to purr, bouncing up and down gently to soothe her child.

"Hey, Dolphie," she whispered. "You miss me? Oh, I missed you too."

Adolpha giggled quietly, a shock considering how silent the baby usually was, and Blake used the distraction to reach up one of her hands to wipe the tears off of her baby's face gently.

"How about I get you back in your crib before Jin gets upset? You two seem _pretty_ close. I think she might look up to her big sister, you know," Blake said, walking back to the crib and reaching down so that she could put down her oldest child.

"Hey, Rubes, can you hand me-"

Ruby pushed one of the baby bottles into Yang's hands.

"Make sure you get him to eat, looks like he threw up a lot."

"That's the plan," Yang replied, reaching down while trying to get Auburn to drink.

"To get him to eat, you have to-" Weiss was cut off by the blond.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Yang said, reaching down to start tickling Auburn on the stomach. He giggled quietly, which allowed Yang to gently put the bottle in his mouth. He immediately reacted, starting to get a little to drink as one of his hands raised up into the air. His hand grabbed onto Yang's metallic finger again, and the blond smiled down at him fondly.

Ruby glanced at her sister and smiled gently, realizing that Yang was holding one of the children she'd given birth to... and Ruby was holding Aella, making sure that the attention hog didn't start crying from her siblings getting all of the attention from their parents.

Ruby suddenly realized that she was like her mother, taking care of a child that she hadn't given birth to like the girl was her own. Just like Summer had done with Yang.

Ruby stared to stare down at Aella, running her finger gently down the baby's face lovingly. Aella giggled and her feet wiggled a bit.

Ruby loved her already. Aella was no different than the triplets. None of them were.

Ruby rocked back and forth for a few minutes while Weiss walked through the room, her footsteps almost silent due to her feet being bare as she walked across puppy pads. She was checking to see if any of their babies had had an accident.

When she reached Akio, she gently picked him up and walked over to Yang.

"You done feeding Akio?" she whispered.

"Yeah, trying to get him back to sleep," Yang replied.

"Here."

Weiss held up Akio and gently placed him in Yang's arms.

"Did you seriously just put a child in my arms so I would change his diapers?"

"Yes, my diaper queen."

Yang sighed and shook her head, taking a few steps backward until she was standing next to the changing station. She set Akio down and went through the stages of changing the his diaper quickly and efficiently.

"Hey, how about you let me-"

"I already finished," Yang whispered, cutting her father off, picking up Akio and walking over to the crib and setting him back down.

"Well, we can handle it now if you four want to-"

Blake glanced at her wives with a small smile on her face.

"No, I think... I think we're good."

"Definitely," Weiss whispered, smiling fondly down at the cribs.

How had they ever thought that they could take a night off? They were parents. This wasn't just a job, it was a pleasure.

Even if they had to keep changes of clothes in the nursery in case of vomit.


	8. Excursion

"Look, it's not that weird," Weiss said, shaking her head as she leaned down to pick up Crystal and put her in one of the double strollers, right beside Aella.

"But they're only three weeks old!" Blake whined, looking down at her chest, where Yang had strapped Adolpha to her chest with one of the baby carriers. Jin was in a stroller in front of her, and she was rocking her back and forth gently.

Adolpha started to giggle while Blake purred, wiggling just slightly as she laid there.

"But we have to get out of this house, and we can't leave them here alone with **them** ," Weiss said with an eye roll, pushing the stroller forward.

"Someone else please tell her that this is insane," Blake whined.

"I think this is a great idea!" Yang said excitedly, pushing Auburn and Akio in a double stroller.

Ruby had the final baby, Lavey, in a single stroller. She was carefully watching the small baby.

"But if it's loud, Dolphie will start crying, and then Jin will join in. And if it's **cold**?! Dust, don't get me started on what happens when it gets cold... and if it's dry out-"

"Blakey, we know what happens when it's cold out and it's dry, but we can deal with it. We need to do this. They've been in this house for weeks, and these seven have been in this same puke infested nursery. They need to get some fresh air. Besides, we can come back if something goes wrong, and Yang's taking the diaper bag," Ruby said.

"First of all, it's not **just** a diaper bag, and why do **I** need to be the one that brings it?!" Yang hissed, pushing open the door and leading the other three out of the room.

"Because you're the diaper queen," Weiss said, following after her.

Blake glanced down at Adolpha and Jin. Adolpha was still smiling gently, clearly enjoying the purring that her mother was doing.

Jin always seemed content as well, but, to be fair, she always was. Jin was a quiet baby, not as much so as Adolpha though obviously, but she usually didn't seem to care about most things, as long as she wasn't starving or if Adolpha seemed upset.

Blake considered for a moment, glancing up at her wives, who were already out of the nursery, looking back at her with small smiles. They all looked so **excited** to get outside of the house, and even the babies looked enthused at the idea of going somewhere else, having only been in three real places in their lives (the hospital, the van, and the nursery).

Blake let out a sigh and shook her head sufferingly.

"Alright. Alright, fine, let's go."

Ruby cheered quietly, eyes darting to Adolpha for a moment when she almost let out a loud whoop.

Blake wondered how long they'd have to be careful with their wolf faunus baby, but she couldn't find it in herself to ever be frustrated with her, especially considering she could relate to the wolf faunus with her own ears.

Yang opened the door and stepped outside with a broad grin. She let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh my dust. I forgot how awesome it was to feel the sun on my skin."

"I thought you said you weren't into Sun that way," Blake said, smirking at her blond wife, who rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yes, I'm **definitely** going to leave you two for him. Drop the children that I've already put so much work into raising, make him divorce the loves of his life, and then marry Sun Nikos," Yang said with an eye roll.

Weiss passed by and slapped Yang on the back. The blond laughed and followed after her, pushing the stroller behind the former heiress.

"Honestly, it is pretty awesome to be out in the open. I forgot what air from a room that didn't have our children puke in it," Ruby said with a small sigh, leaning against Blake as the two walked.

"Hey, go lean against Weiss, I have Adolpha here," Blake whispered, gently shoving Ruby off of her before she could upset the baby that was strapped to her chest.

Ruby laughed quietly and moved a bit faster, walking up to lean against her other wife instead as they walked down the sidewalk.

"Come on, Kitkat, I know you're excited to be outside," Yang said with an eye roll. "Stop being such a...," Blake glanced at Yang and saw the smirk on her face. It was clear what she was about to do, "SOURPUSS!"

All four of them stopped, Yang almost accidentally hitting her sister with the stroller in surprise.

Ruby and Weiss both gave Yang disappointed stares while Blake rolled her eyes sufferingly.

"Get it? Cause she's a cat faunus? Sourpuss... like a pussy cat?" Yang offered, still smirking.

"How can you be married to a faunus, have five faunus children, and **still** be racist?" Weiss asked, throwing up one hand while keeping the other on the stroller in front of her.

"I'm not racist! I'm just funny and you three have no sense of humor."

As they began to walk, Blake's eyes suddenly widened.

"Oh my dust. These children are related to her. Do you think one of them... do you think that one of them will have her sense of humor?" Blake asked.

Ruby gasped.

"I hope not," the team leader said.

"We'll love them anyways. Even if they're a monster like her," Weiss said stoicly.

"Of course we will," Blake said, giving the blond a small smirk as they all walked.

"That's so ru-"

Whatever Yang was going to say was cut off by a loud gasp.

"Oh my dust! They are all _so_ cute!" a voice cried.

The four all turned to face the newcomer, Blake pulling her stroller closer to her and reaching one hand up to put a hand on Adolpha's head gently, running a finger on her wolf ears and making the wolf faunus giggle at the action.

"Uh... thanks?" Ruby asked awkwardly, looking to her wives and sister for any help with the woman.

"Oh, are you four new mothers?" the woman asked, looking up at team RWBY, who all nodded.

"Oh, that's so sweet!"

The woman was a bit past middle aged, and she looked so excited when she saw team RWBY standing together.

"Is this a Mommy and Me class?" she asked.

Blake glanced at the others, grimacing.

"No, we're uh... these are our kids," Blake said slowly.

"That's... what I assumed," the woman said.

"Blake, you sound like a kidnapper," Yang hissed, making the cat faunus roll her eyes and lean down to glance at Jin, checking that she was alright. She was rather obsessive with her checking on the children.

Blake finally looked at her wives, wondering if it would just be easier to lie. Instead, Yang stepped in to stop her from doing so.

"Would you like to hold one?" Weiss offered.

The woman **beamed** and nodded, stepping toward Weiss, who reached down to grab a child from the stroller.

"This little one's name is Crystal," Weiss said, grinning down at her child, whom she passed to the woman.

The woman hesitated, eyes going wide when she saw Crystal's tail sticking out of her little baby clothes.

"She's... she's a faunus."

"She is," Weiss said, suddenly pulling Crystal closer to her chest and eyes narrowing just slightly.

"Aw, baby faunus are the cutest," the woman's eyes widened and she glanced at Blake. "I'm sorry, I don't mean any disrespect by that-"

"Oh, it's alright," Blake said, smirking at Ruby. "Even my wife says that kind of stuff."

"Oh... really?" the woman asked with quiet intrigue.

"I do!" Ruby said, leaning closer to Blake and poking Adolpha gently on the nose. "And I'm absolutely right, aren't I, Dolphie?"

The baby faunus giggled, and Ruby suddenly **beamed**.

"Oh my dust!" Yang whispered. "Did she just laugh at someone other than Blake?!"

"I think she did!" Ruby hissed, leaning closer and beaming down at their oldest. "She's so cute when she laughs, isn't she?"

"Oh, definitely," Weiss said, leaning closer to Ruby and setting her head on the team leader's shoulder.

"So, which ones are yours?" the woman asked Blake.

"All of them," Blake said awkwardly, running one hand through her hair.

"Oh..."

"Should we just tell her?" Weiss asked sufferingly, glancing at Ruby and giving her a quick kiss on the neck. Ruby giggled at the action, squirming slightly.

"I guess so, considering I guess that she lives in the neighborhood," Yang said, rolling her eyes at her dramatic wives and sister.

"You do it, you know I'm awkward," Blake whispered.

"Oh, I definitely know that you're awkward. Remember that time you tried to call the doctor and schedule an appointment for-"

"Yes, I remember!" Blake hissed, glaring at her wife playfully. "That's why I'm making you tell her."

"What's going on?" the woman asked awkwardly, still holding Crystal in her arms.

"Well... you were asking which kids were hers, that's Blake by the way, she's my wife, my name's Yang-"

"I thought she was her wife," the woman said, pointing at Ruby.

"I am!" Ruby said excitedly.

"That's Ruby, my sister, she's also married to Blake. And Weiss. And I'm also married to Weiss. And Weiss is also married to Blake."

There was a beat of silence before Yang smiled awkwardly.

"And... these are our seven children; Adolpha, Jin, Akio, Aella, Crystal, Lavey, and Auburn. We're the Belladonna-Schnees, and we probably just confused you so I'm gonna take that baby out of your arms before you drop her," Yang said, reaching forward and grabbing Crystal gently. "And... there we go! Hey, Crystal! Oh, your favorite Mommy's here! Do you wanna play with my prosthetic? Oh, I know you do! I know you do!"

Ruby laughed at her sister while Weiss rolled her eyes.

"You are **not** her favorite, and none of them have favorites," Weiss said.

"Except Jin. She has a favorite," Ruby replied.

"It doesn't count when her favorite is Adolpha," Weiss hissed, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, keep it down," Blake whispered, running one hand gently over Adolpha's head.

"And no arguing, it makes Auburn want to throw up," Yang said, glancing down at the stroller she was holding.

"Everything makes Auburn throw up, Yang," Weiss whispered. "Crying makes him throw up, his siblings crying makes him throw up, heat makes him throw up, the cold makes him throw up, dry air makes him throw up, too much humidity makes... well, it doesn't make him throw up, but it makes his gills come out and then **those** make him freak out and then he starts to throw up because freaking out makes him throw up!"

Yang was about to reply, but Ruby tapped her on the shoulder.

"What, Rubes?" she asked.

"Lavey needs her diaper changed."

Yang groaned and stepped forward, putting Crystal in Ruby's hands.

"Hold my stroller, and this does **not** make me a diaper queen."

"It totally does," Weiss muttered, winking at Ruby and causing her to giggle.

Blake turned her attention to the still shocked older woman.

"Sorry about her," Blake said with a small, awkward smile. "Not because she lied, because she didn't, but... sorry she was so weird about it. My name's Blake Belladonna-Schnee, these are my wives, Ruby, Yang, and Weiss, we're in a polyamorous relationship with the exception of Ruby and Yang, because they're sisters, and we had a pamphlet but we left it at home and it's really bad. Sorry, Sugar, but it is. Anyways, these are our children, like she said, and we live right up there on top of that hill. I'm sorry if this is... awkward or if this makes you uncomfortable but... we're here to stay, and the likelihood of some of our other weird friends moving in is... actually pretty high. Anyways, if you were wondering, we work at Beacon Academy as teachers, and yes, that is Weiss as in Weiss Schnee, formerly."

Blake glanced over her shoulder at her wives.

"Did I get all of the big questions?" Blake asked.

"Everything except one," Ruby said.

"What was it?" Weiss questioned.

"The question of how we make such adorable children together!" Ruby said, bouncing up and down with Crystal and making her laugh adorably.

"Oh, right, our children were made with a special type of dust that allowed us to mix our Auras," Blake said.

The woman was still staring at them.

Blake sighed and turned, putting a hand on Ruby's shoulder to turn her around.

"You guys ready to go? I think we broke her."

"Leaving the house was probably a bad idea," Weiss muttered.

"It was your idea," Blake hissed.

"Yeah, but you have the brain cell almost all the time, Blakey! We count on you to stop us!" Ruby whispered.

"I tried to stop you!"

Ruby rolled her eyes.

"Well, try harder next time, Blakey."

Blake sighed, shaking her head.

Despite the awkwardness, the walk had been fun, and she was happy to show their children some of the big wide world. It would be a wonderful thing to do when they were older. Show them everything they'd seen in their adventures...

The idea made her smile fondly as she slipped her hand into Weiss'.

And the best part would be that she'd get to do it with her wives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is later than usual!
> 
> Next chapter... is gonna be fun!


	9. We Forgot

Yang sat up in bed, in a cold sweat.

"Rubes," she said, shaking her sister beside her. "Rubes! Wake up!"

"Hmm? What?" Ruby asked tiredly, stretching a little and rolling over to face her sister.

"We forgot!"

"Forgot what?" Ruby asked, still laying down with her eyes half closed. It was clear that she was very close to falling asleep.

" **IT**!" Yang hissed.

Ruby laid in bed for a long moment before her eyes flashed open. She sat up quickly, grabbing onto her sister's hand.

"OH MY DUST! WE FORGOT!"

Yang leapt out of bed, grabbing her sister and pulling her behind her.

"We have to fix it!" Yang cried, racing through the house.

Yang skidded to a stop in front of the nursery, opening the door excitedly, but making sure that it didn't squeak.

Blake and Weiss turned, both having been laying down beside cribs with their hands in different ones to comfort the children.

"What? Is everything alright?" Blake asked softly, eyes darting across the room to check on the children to see if something had gone wrong that had drawn their wives into the room.

"No, nothing alright! We forgot the most important part of being mothers!" Yang hissed, darting over to Crystal's crib and reaching down gently to pick her up.

She held her up over her head and Ruby darted over to her side with a wide grin.

"NANTS SEVENYA BABA-"

Blake's eyes widened and she slapped her hand over Ruby's mouth.

"Don't you dare."

"Muff shwfs," Ruby said, her voice muffled behind Blake's hand. The cat faunus could understand it anyways. _"But it's important!"_

"No, it's not. You can't sing The Lion King because we have a faunus with feline qualities. That's so racist," Blake said.

Meanwhile, Weiss was biting on her lip and trying not to look at Yang holding up Crystal.

Yang smirked and looked at the former heiress.

"Aw, c'mon, Angel, you know you wanna."

Weiss shook her head, and Blake's gaze darted to her while she continued to hold Ruby's mouth to stop her from singing.

"Angel, don't you dare," Blake whispered.

"But... but it's _so_ funny," Weiss muttered, cracking and glancing at Yang with a small smile.

"Nats sevenya! Baba besebaba-"

Yang joined in, but the noise was broken as Crystal and Adolpha started to cry.

Blake cursed under her breath and darted over to Adolpha's crib, hoping to calm her down before she set off Jin.

Meanwhile, Yang was putting Crystal in Weiss' arms.

"Oh dust, Weiss, I can't believe you upset her. You should be more careful, she's only four weeks old!" Yang hissed.

Weiss glared at her darkly as she started to calm down Crystal.

Ruby was currently laughing way too hard, and Yang joined in a moment later, both of them doubling over as Blake started to purr and hold Adolpha against her chest.

Adolpha started to calm down slowly, and Ruby knew that once Blake had gotten Adolpha to shut up, Blake would then come and rant at the two sisters.

Ruby grabbed Yang's hand and dragged her out of the room, heading to the bedroom while they kept quietly laughing at what they'd done.

Even if Blake yelled at them later, it would have been worth it.


	10. Mommy and Me

"Do we really need to do this? We have seven children, they don't need to learn social cues from other babies. There's four of us and seven children, of course there's not going to be any lack of social interaction! And let's not forget all of our crazy friends that have been coming over daily!" Blake said quickly.

"I think she just doesn't want to have to have social interaction with someone she doesn't know," Ruby said to her other wife and sister.

"Not to mention the fact that we'd have to take them in the van! And you **know** that the van makes Auburn carsick!" Blake said.

"Blake, everything makes Auburn want to throw up!" Yang hissed. "It doesn't matter if we're in the car or not. And we need to get out of this house."

"Also, do you really want them learning social interaction from our friends? I mean, **Neo** comes over all the time! We don't want our children learning from her, right?" Weiss offered.

Blake hesitated, glancing down at the strollers filled with their children. So, so many children.

"But... maybe we should wait a few more weeks. What if they aren't ready? We don't want to overstimulate them, and if they start crying, then Adolpha-"

"We **know** what sets all of them off, Blakey. We've known them as long as you have," Ruby noted, rolling her eyes. "Now stop complaining, because we're going. End of discussion."

Blake sighed and nodded sufferingly, grabbing a stroller and starting to push it out of the room.

"But what if the other moms are mean? Or, even worse, what if the other babies are jerks and rude to ours? Lavey's so tiny, she can't have a mortal nemesis yet!" Blake hissed.

"I think my favorite part of that is that you implied that she can one day have a mortal nemesis," Yang said, snickering. Weiss rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, Blake. The other babies aren't going to hate them," Weiss said, trying to sound serious despite how absurd the words were.

"What about the other mothers? Oh my dust, what if they're judgmental? Should we tell them that we're together or lie? And then what would they say when they learn we have **dust** babies?" Blake was clearly freaking out, so Yang turned, holding in an eye roll, and set her hands on top of Blake's shoulders comfortingly.

"Kitkat, calm down. Everything's going to be perfectly fine. The other mothers are probably as sleep deprived as we are, so they won't have the mental capacity to judge us or our children. And if something goes wrong, it'll be alright because we'll be surrounded by other mothers. They know what it's like when your child randomly starts crying or throwing up. Don't worry," Yang said, smiling down at the cat faunus fondly.

Blake let out a long sigh, her shoulders relaxing slightly.

"Yeah, you're right. You're right! I shouldn't worry that much. I mean, the worst that could happen is that they kick us out, and even then that means I won't have to go back."

Blake's wives all rolled their eyes.

"I guess that's... one way of looking at it," Weiss said, chuckling quietly.

Blake nodded and smiled, glancing at her wives.

"Alright. Let's do this."

-

The car ride was a mess, and by the time they got to the group, they had pulled over no less than four times because of different crying children, diaper changes, Aella's constant need for attention, Auburn's puking, and Adolpha freaking out when someone honked.

But the point was, they made it **right** on time, hurrying through the doors just as the clock struck four.

Blake was awkwardly at the back of the four while Yang stood at the front, a wide grin on her face.

"Hi! Sorry we were almost late!" she said.

Another woman walked up with a wide, calming smile on her face, but her gaze darted over the Belladonna-Schnee family quickly.

"Hi, my name's Sharon, we talked on the phone," she said, holding out her hand.

Yang shook it with her mechanical one, and Sharon's eyes widened, but she stayed quiet.

"I'm Yang, and this is my sister Ruby and our wives Blake and Weiss."

There was a beat of silence.

"Alright," Sharon said with a small smile. She was clearly a mother. Blake could tell from the bags under her eyes and the dirty clothes. "And who are these little guys?"

Yang quickly introduced the seven before she grabbed Blake by the hand, tugging her over to join the circle of people on the floor.

Blake had calmed down a bit when she saw no woman freaking out at their relationship and the baby faunus, so she spoke up when Sharen asked a question.

"Why don't you tell us about your little ones."

Blake glanced at her wives, who all had fond smiles. Weiss gestured for Blake to go.

Blake quickly went through introducing all seven of their children and talking about their different quirks and ways to avoid making them cry. When she had finished, all of the mothers were smiling at her and the children broadly, albeit tiredly.

The class was... odd, for sure. It was filled with mothers of children between five to ten weeks old, and team RWBY's were on the lowest end of the spectrum, having just hit the five week mark, making them a little over a month old. The class seemed mostly like it was a support group for the mothers at this point, but as the babies got older, it was clear that it would become more about them.

The class was mostly centered around social interactions, considering most of the babies in the room had never met a living person their own age, or perhaps even one that wasn't a doctor or someone they were related to.

When Blake had been worried that she and her family would be ostracized from the group, they were instead the center of attention. Mothers came up to them and asked questions about raising so many children, how they could handle them, what their sleep schedule was like, and even personal questions.

Yang was the most chatty, but Blake was always quick to answer any questions about their plans for taking care of their children when they were a tad bit older. Ruby was also a big talker, enjoying talking to the other mothers and even introducing them to their children.

Out of their children, Lavey and Crystal seemed to be the most popular, considering the mothers enjoyed looking at the tiniest and the cute little tail that Crystal had.

Adolpha was held a few times, but whoever held her typically started to talk too loud, which sent the wolf faunus into a tizzy and she had to be passed back to Blake for soothing.

Auburn was also adored, but after he puked on another baby, he was mostly sentenced to being held in Weiss' lap.

All in all, the evening was going pretty great. The mothers were accepting of the Belladonna-Schnee family, the children weren't being treated any differently, and they were actually enjoying themselves.

But then Sharon decided to sneeze.

The sound woke up Adolpha, whom Blake had finally gotten to fall back asleep, and Adolpha started to cry, her little hands wiggling and looking as if they were trying to reach her wolf ears, but failing to cover them. Blake purred loudly, trying to calm her down, but she wasn't fast enough.

Jin started bawling, and the sound only upset Adolpha more. The others crying made Aella join in, always the attention hog and then the others were cascading after them.

Auburn got upset and vomited on Weiss, Crystal had to have her diaper changed, Akio started to have his allergies, crying loudly only to be interrupted by sneezes.

Long story short, all seven were crying, making the other babies join in soon after, and team RWBY was scrambling to quiet their kids.

"Yang, diaper," Weiss said, putting Crystal in her lap before she took Akio from Yang. She dabbed at his nose and cleared away the snot, rocking him back and forth while quietly singing to him. Weiss had recently learned that, like Blake's purring, her singing could soothe most of their children, including, to everyone's surprise, Adolpha.

Blake scooted closer to Weiss as she sung, making sure that Adolpha could hear it, because the purring wasn't working at the moment.

Jin had switched her skin to scales as she cried, and Blake knew that she had to calm her down before long. If Jin had her scales out for too long, she broke out in a rash when her skin reappeared. The doctors had told Blake that it would only last for a few months and that Jin wouldn't have these symptoms when she was older, that it was only caused by her skin being so unprotected at her young age.

Meanwhile, Ruby had put Auburn in a crib, which she began to rock back and forth to sooth him. He slowly stopped crying and, to her relief, had stopped crying.

Once Yang had changed Crystal's diaper, she grabbed Aella and gave her the attention that she was begging for, calming her down almost instantly.

Lavey stopped as well, having only joined in when she had heard her siblings were upset.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang had been able to calm down their children in under two minutes, but the other mothers in their group were still struggling ten minutes later, and team RWBY awkwardly sat there.

When the room was finally quiet, Blake spoke up.

"Sorry about the commotion, when one of them gets upset, it just goes downhill fast," the cat faunus said.

"It's like butterfly effect! One person sneezes and then suddenly Auburn throws up!" Ruby said with a small laugh.

"Everything makes him throw up, Sugar," Weiss muttered, though she gave Auburn a small, fond smile as she sat there.

"Yeah, but this time it was because everyone was upset," Yang pointed out. "Do you think he'll be like this when he's older?"

"I hope not," Blake muttered. "Imagine cleaning up your teenage son's vomit after he got a little too excited."

Yang made a sound of disgust, shaking her head.

"Why did you make me imagine that, Kitkat? I thought you loved me."

Before Blake had the opportunity to respond to her wife, there was a sudden commotion from the room as all of the other mothers started to ask team RWBY questions.

"How did you quiet them down so quickly?!"

"How did you know why they were all upset?!"

There were more questions, but Blake cut them all off with a warning look.

"Can you all ask your questions a little quieter? Dolphie looks like she might just start crying again," Blake muttered, glancing at where the wolf faunus was being held in Weiss' lap.

Suffice it to say, team RWBY was a hit at their Mommy and Me group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw do I need to add a cheat sheet on which baby is which? I could make it and add it like before the first chapter or whatever. If you guys still don't know which is which, please let me know and I'll add it


	11. Coming Up

Blake let out a sigh, running a hand through her hair.

The last few weeks had passed in a mixture of loving bliss and horrified terror.

The four girls had sort of fallen into a pattern, losing track of time.

All of the windows were shut constantly which meant that it was impossible to tell what time it was or when one day had passed into the next, the grandparents had gone home after their failure to help take care of the seven (though they promised to come over as frequently as possible), and the children were the only thing that any of the parents seemed to think about.

Despite having trouble figuring out what time it was, the four were determined to make it to every possible Mommy and Me class that was offered.

By the end of the the seventh week of their children's life (because team RWBY no longer told time by date or month, but days since when the seven had been born), all four of them had gotten to know all of the women in the class exceedingly well. They knew their names, their husbands, their children, their children's quirks, their children's sleep schedules, and practically everything that they could know about the children.

The mothers were always trying to get to know more about how team RWBY took care of their children and how they calmed them down. Apparently, having seven children made the four of them have to advance their parenting skills much faster than the other mothers, who all had only one child. Team RWBY was soon known as the most advanced parents, and the other parents would come to get help from them whenever they had struggles.

Yang had gotten smug about this, Weiss was frustrated, Blake was intimidated and clearly worried that she would give bad advice to the other parents, and Ruby was just happy to be making other friends that were going through what they were.

Their other friends had also started to get less intimidated when they were visiting, seeming to worry less about hurting the children, and came over far more often.

Yang's favorite memory was when Sun had played with Aella some with his tail, letting it dangle in her crib, and Aella had giggled, reaching out with her hand and grasping at it.

When he had grinned at her, Aella giggled more and wiggled a bit, clearly wanting to draw his tail closer. Sun had dropped his tail down just a bit more for her, and she had grasped it with both hands.

"Aw, she likes her Uncle Sunny's tail, doesn't she-"

Sun cut himself out with a shriek when Aella had put her mouth on the tail, suckling it gently.

Sun clearly wanted to yank his tail out of her mouth, but knew that he couldn't without possibly harming the child.

"Yang!" he whined. "Get her off!"

But his voice was drowned out as Adolpha started to cry, due to his loud yell.

Sun was left having to deal with his tail in Aella's mouth for the next few minutes while her parents dealt with the fallout of Adolpha's crying.

The four mothers were even caught off guard by the fact that their children were suddenly **ten** weeks old! They were going to return to Beacon and their work the next day, their maternity leave finally having run out.

But... how were they going to deal with the work **and** their children?


	12. And... We're Back!

Yang was pacing back and forth nervously, which was a surprise. Usually Blake was doing that.

"But what if-"

"I've set it all up, Yang. You don't have to worry," Blake whispered, taking the blond's hands in her own and squeezing them lightly. "I promise."

"But they're so **little**! Especially Lavey! Oh my dust, she's so tiny! And if we leave them alone, how will we-"

"Yang, most parents leave their ten week old, that's over **two months** , babies alone for prolonged periods of time, only waking up when they hear them crying. And we're going to have our baby monitors in our headphones. They'll be perfectly fine," Weiss whispered gently. She hadn't meant to whisper, but the four of them had fallen into the habit of speaking far too quietly so that they could be careful of Adolpha's sensitive ears.

Blake let out a quiet laugh as Yang sighed deeply, leaning against her side.

"I just... I just want to make sure that they're alright."

"I know, I know," Blake said gently. "They will be, trust me."

Yang stared at her for a moment before her gaze darted to Weiss and Ruby.

Finally, she nodded and smiled, opening the back of the van and starting to unbuckle them.

-

Weiss pressed the earbud into her ear and listened to the baby monitor. They had put the seven down in the daycare earlier, and she was now getting ready for class.

Winter was standing at her side, giving her a small smile. They had just caught up after not seeing each other for a few days, and Weiss was still surprised to see that her sister was so... pregnant.

That sounded stupid.

Weiss knew that her sister was pregnant, logically, of course, but it still didn't seem... real? There was just something about Winter that made her seem... above being pregnant? It was hard to express what she meant, and it sounded stupid, but Weiss didn't know how else to explain it.

Anyways, that wasn't the point.

Winter had started to show just slightly, and Weiss found herself frowning.

"Winter, have you not gone to get your ultrasound?" Weiss asked with a confused look on her face as she watched her sister.

"No."

"Why?" Weiss asked instantly.

"I...," Winter hesitated and glanced away from her sister. "I'm... not certain that I'm ready to... know."

"If you're having more than one?" Weiss asked with a small smirk on her face. She'd never seen her sister look so **scared**. It was fun to watch Winter squirm.

"Yes. That."

"Well, it's important to know, isn't it?" Weiss asked with a sly grin.

Winter let out a small sigh.

"I... suppose. That is what Penny keeps saying."

"You're kidding me. You've been keeping this a mystery to **Penny**?! The most excited mother-to-be in all of history?" Weiss asked.

Winter let out a small sigh.

"Yes."

"You need to fix that," Weiss said.

"I... made a mistake. I realize that now," Winter said slowly. Her eyes suddenly widened slightly, and she glanced at her sister. "How do I fix it?"

"Get an ultrasound."

"But those appointments can take weeks. How can I fix it quickly?" Winter asked.

Weiss hesitated. She had never seen Winter this worried, nor asking Weiss for help this way. She needed to give her **something** , considering she'd never seen her sister this worked up.

But if she couldn't wait for an ultrasound... what would be able to tell them quicker?

Just then, the door opened and eight figures walked in.

Alea was laughing loudly, brushing hair over her ear with a wide grin on her face.

"Ives, you're kidding!" she hissed.

Ivy just smirked at her, leaning closer to Alea as they walked toward their seats.

Alea had an arm slung around Ivy's shoulders while Rachel had her hand in Ivy's own. Meanwhile, Lexey was holding Alea on the arm with a fond smile.

Weiss' eyes suddenly widened, and she hurried over to the students.

"Ivy, can I bother you for a moment?" Weiss asked.

Ivy nodded, but her eyes were distantly looking above Weiss' head. Ivy only ever focused her gaze when something important was happening. Or when her girlfriends, Oscar, or Alea were speaking to her.

"Did you know that the likelihood of twins, triplets, or quadruplets being born premature is much higher than other babies?" Ivy asked idly.

Weiss hesitated.

"Yes?"

"The question is the answer," Ivy said softly.

Natalie and Rachel rolled their eyes while Alea started to laugh.

"That's rude, Ives. Stop messing with her," Alea said, rolling her eyes.

Ivy gave her girlfriends an innocent smile, which just made Rachel roll her eyes.

"You're not that sweet. You're not fooling us," Rachel said.

Natalie laughed, turning to face Weiss.

"That's her way of saying yes. She's going to help you."

"That's... thank you?" Weiss asked, eyes darting between Natalie, Oscar, Rachel, and Ivy.

Alea unwrapped her arm from around Ivy's shoulders and playfully pushed her forward.

"What do you need?" Ivy asked, tilting her head just slightly to the side in confusion.

Weiss hesitated before she reached out her hand and set it on Ivy's arm.

Ivy considered for a long moment.

"You want me to be your ultrasound?"

"Yes."

"You know that I'm not all powerful, right? I don't know **everything** in the universe."

"Is that sarcastic?" Weiss questioned.

"I don't _do_ sarcasm, Mrs. Belladonna-Schnee."

A beat of silence.

"That was sarcasm!" Rachel called.

"I'm lost," Weiss admitted.

"She's still messing with you," Natalie explained.

"She likes to do that to you because she makes you uncomfortable," Alea added.

"So... can she do it or not?" Weiss asked.

"Of course she can," Stacey said with a flippant wave of her hand, rolling her eyes as if Weiss had just asked the stupidest question known to mankind.

"Okay...," Weiss started to take a step toward her sister, and Ivy idly followed her movements, not looking directly at Winter as she walked toward her.

Finally, Ivy reached their destination and set her hand on Winter's stomach gently.

Ivy considered for a long moment, tilting her head to the side as her eyes fluttered shut.

There was a beat of silence in the room as everyone watched her.

"You still don't know if you want to know," Ivy said.

Winter took a moment, taking a deep breath.

"I do."

Ivy considered before a small smile spread across her lips.

"That's very sweet. You should tell your wife that you think that."

Winter flushed.

"Just tell me," she snapped.

Ivy nodded while Rachel and Natalie bristled.

"Hey! She's not just some dog you can give orders to!" Natalie snapped.

"Yeah! You can't just make her do your bidding!" Rachel added.

Alea's eyes were trained on Ivy, head tilting to the side.

"It's alright. She's scared," Alea whispered.

Winter glared at her, but didn't get the chance to say anything. Ivy cut her off.

"A boy. You're having a baby boy. Just the one."

Winter broke down crying.


	13. Mind Reader

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was inspired by a comment from Zamrok. Thanks, bud!

Winter had left the room a few minutes ago, and Weiss presumed that she had gone to find Penny so that she could give her the information that Ivy had given her.

That left Weiss alone with a bunch of children in the room that she was supposed to teach. She didn't know what was going on in class currently, so she was glancing at Winter's notes.

But it was hard for her to focus, considering she had one headphone in, listening intently to the baby monitor. She hadn't heard anything going wrong, but she was still focused on it. It was comforting to know that her wives were listening in too, in case she messed something up and they heard it instead.

Weiss started class slowly, but was able to get through it. Winter still hadn't come back, which wasn't exactly in character for her.

About halfway through class, Weiss heard crying coming through her headphone.

She took out her scroll immediately.

 **Weiss:** _I'll handle it._

Her wives all responded to make sure that she could do it by herself, but she was already on the move.

"Okay, we're going to take a little field trip. Come with me," Weiss said. "We're going to look at the outcome of a very particular type of dust, which makes this educational and completely on topic."

There were some snickers and she glared at her students that did so.

Weiss opened the daycare room and stepped inside. From the headphone, she had been able to tell that Crystal had been the one crying.

Weiss narrowed in on her, starting to grab her, but Adolpha began to cry as well.

Weiss focused on Crystal first, knowing that Adolpha was only upset because of the loud noise.

Weiss tried to give her the bottle, but Crystal didn't seem hungry. She tried to put her back to sleep and check her diaper. None of it worked.

Ivy was watching her idly, her gaze on the edge of being focused as she considered.

"Did you know that after birth a baby grows an average of one inch per month?" Ivy asked.

Weiss glanced at her, frowning.

"No?" she questioned.

"The best way to hold a baby is to cradle their head with one hand and-"

"I know how to hold my own child," Weiss hissed.

Natalie rolled her eyes.

"She's asking to hold her."

Weiss hesitated.

"Why?" the former heiress asked.

"She just performed an ultrasound for your sister and you're wondering if she's trustworthy enough to hold your child?" Rachel asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

Weiss considered for just a moment.

"Fine."

She gently passed Crystal over to Ivy, who immediately started to smile.

"Aw, you're a cute little girl, aren't you?" Ivy cooed.

Weiss blinked in shock. She had never heard Ivy speaking so... clearly.

"You wanna go outside? Do you wanna go outside?" Ivy asked gently. "Then let's go outside!"

Ivy gently walked across the room and Alea opened the door to the balcony for her.

Crystal started to giggle as she looked up at Ivy.

"You just wanted to go outside, didn't you? Well you shoulda just said so," Ivy cooed.

Crystal giggled again, bringing her hands together and doing that adorable almost clapping thing that babies did.

Weiss gaped at Ivy in disbelief.

Ivy bounced for a moment before she walked back into the room.

She walked in a distracted way, but her feet were able to avoid any of the toys and objects that littered the floor.

She finally stopped next to the crying Adolpha, reaching one hand down to rest it in her crib.

As soon as Adolpha touched her hand, the wolf faunus stopped crying, blinking and staring up at Ivy.

"I like this one," Ivy said distractedly, staring down at the oldest baby.

Adolpha giggled.

Alea stepped up next to Ivy and stared down at Adolpha.

She set her finger on Adolpha's foot, tickling it lightly. Adolpha giggled again.

"I like her too," Alea whispered, glancing at Ivy with a small smile on her face.

Alea sensed that someone was watching her, and she glanced over her shoulder, finding that Weiss was staring at her.

"How did you do that?" she whispered to Ivy.

Ivy tilted her head to the side, not looking back at her.

"Do what?"

"Know that Crystal wanted to go outside!"

"Because I could sense it. I can sense things. It-"

"It's her thing," Rachel finished with a smug smirk, crossing her arms. She looked so proud of her girlfriend.

"You're a mind reader," Weiss whispered. "You can read their minds."

"I don't-"

"She doesn't read minds," Natalie offered, rolling her eyes. "She says she doesn't, but she kinda does."

"No she doesn't," Alea offered, frowning just slightly and tilting her head to the side. "She just senses things."

"Senses thoughts. That's the definition of mind reading," Rachel said.

Weiss waved her hands to silence them.

"Ivy... how much?"

"There's seven babies," Ivy said with a confused look on her face. She glanced at her friend, and Alea shrugged her confusion back at her.

"No, how much per hour? I want you as our babysitter."

"I don't sit on babies, ma'am," Ivy said.

Natalie, Rachel, and Alea burst out laughing while Weiss stared at her.

If Ivy could practically read their children's minds...

Then the price didn't matter, right?!


	14. The Babysitters

"No, we can't 'keep them,' Weiss!" Blake hissed. "We already have seven children, we can't add two teams!"

"But you should have **seen her** , Blake! She just _knew_ what Crystal wanted immediately!" Weiss whispered heatedly. "We'll never find someone else like that! She's the _perfect_ baby sitter!

"So you want to hire her as a full time baby sitter?! You **know** that means that the rest of team ORIN would have to join, and then ATLS because Ivy won't go without Alea and Alea won't come without her girlfriends. That means we would be hiring _eight people_ as full time babysitters. Inside our home. First of all, we don't have the money for that. Second of all, we don't have enough **room** for eight people!" Blake hissed.

"We have the money. I'd just have to badger my brother until he gave it to us," Weiss said. "And we've had **more** than eight people staying in our house before. Plus, they won't mind staying in two or three rooms. We **have** enough room!"

Weiss looked to Ruby and Yang for help.

"They're _students_ , Weiss! And the tournament is coming up, so-"

Yang gently set her hand on Blake's shoulder to cut her off.

"This... does seem rather crazy, Weiss. These are eight underage children that you want to ask to move into our home," Yang said.

"I think this is a _great_ idea! She'd be able to take some of the weight off our shoulders _and_ make sure that they're safe!" Ruby added.

Blake and Yang glanced at one another for a moment, suffering looks in their eyes.

-

"You can't be serious."

Ivy stared at Natalie, frowning just slightly.

Ivy took a moment to consider, frowning. She was struggling to speak normally, but when Alea gave her that goofy smile, thumbs up, and wink, it made Ivy feel more confident.

"These are the people that got you your wings, Nat. I have to... we owe them, don't we? And Oscar's close with them. They saved his life," Ivy paused for just a moment, thinking. "I want to help, if they're serious."

Alea cheered excitedly, grinning at her friend.

"You four should totally do it!" she said. "You'll be a great babysitter, Ives!"

Natalie had tears in her eyes, but she quickly tried to cover them.

"Okay. If this is what you want, Ives, I'll be there for you."

"Me too!" Rachel cheered, leaning over and falling into Natalie's lap. She looked up at the bat faunus with a grin, winking up at her. Natalie flushed, and Stacey idly patted her hand against the floor, putting out a flame.

"It'll be awkward," Oscar said with a sigh, "but I'll come along and help however I can, Ives."

Ivy was frowning, her head tilted to the side.

"Did you know that in some countries, the number eight represents the totality of time?" Ivy said. Her eyes had focused on Alea, and the team leader's eyes widened.

"You... really?"

Ivy nodded, and Alea glanced at her teammates with an awkward smile. Ivy saw the puppy grin, but her teammates saw a sultry smirk.

"How does a change of scenery sounds, girls?"

-

Blake and Yang felt as if they were backed up against a wall, struggling to find a defense.

"Don't you want to make sure that they're safe? What if Auburn gets sick and we can't tell because he's _always_ throwing up?" Weiss questioned. " **Ivy** would know if he was sick."

"I thought you were terrified of her," Yang said, glancing at Blake.

"I was, but now she's like... my _savior_. She could know **exactly** what to do. And for once we wouldn't be outnumbered by children! There's be more adults and almost adults than babies in the house! Even when your parents were here, we were only equal to seven," Weiss continued, giving Blake a pointed look.

Ruby jumped to agree, and Weiss' smirk turned smug. She knew that she was winning the argument, and that Blake was running out of arguments.

Blake finally groaned, slumping back against the wall and running a hand down her face in frustration. She was out of reasons to stop her wives.

"Fine. Fine! We can **ask** them, but we're not going to force them. If she says no, she says no," Blake pointed out.

Weiss and Ruby grinned, the latter letting out a loud cheer. All four of them were silently glad that they weren't anywhere near their children at the moment, which meant that they wouldn't wake up Adolpha and upset all of their children in a cascade pattern that woke up all of them and made them all burst into tears.

Blake groaned as Ruby turned on her semblance.

Yesterday had been the first time in **months** that she had been able to use it, since she'd gotten pregnant, and Ruby had been using it almost constantly.

Ruby latching onto Weiss and dragged her down the halls.

Blake and Yang shared a suffering look with each other before they jogged after the pair.

-

Ivy grabbed onto Terresa's hand and unceremoniously tugged her forward.

"Hey, Ives, what's going o-"

Terresa was cut off as the door slammed open.

Terresa had been standing right in front of said door, and definitely would have been hit by the door if Ivy hadn't saved her.

Terresa glanced down at Ivy and gave her a wry grin.

"Thanks, Ives," she said. Ivy distractedly smiled, but her gaze was unfocused as she waited for the intruders to speak.

"Ruby," Weiss hissed. "We should have knocked!"

"Yeah, you should have," Oscar said with a small grin.

Ruby didn't seem to care, shrugging and looking at her students excitedly.

She was about to speak, but Weiss covered her mouth with one hand before she turned to face team ATLS and ORIN.

"Ivy, we've discussed it, and we would like to offer you a position as our babysitter. Formally, I mean. We can discuss price, and we would be willing to provide housing in our guest bedroom for you."

Ruby said something muffled against her mouth and Weiss was sure it was about them offering board to all eight of them, but Weiss wanted to keep her silent. She didn't want to play all her cards too early.

Ivy gave her a distracted grin, nodding.

"Did you know-"

Natalie gently put her hand on top of Ivy's mouth, Stacey starting to speak.

"You're going to provide housing for all of team ATLS and ORIN, pay Ivy and Alea, your babysitters, two hundred thousand lien per month, and you're going to give both of our teams extra sparring lessons to get us ready for the tournament," Stacey said immediately, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the teachers.

Weiss raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

Both Ruby and Ivy looked confused, sharing a glance as the two negotiated.

"Housing for four at most, fifty thousand lien per month, and two extra sparring lessons," Weiss said.

"Housing for eight, one hundred and fifty thousand per month, and you're giving us ten extra sparring lessons."

Weiss considered for a moment.

"Housing for eight, one hundred thousand per month, and eight extra sparring lessons."

Stacey scoffed.

"Housing for eight, one hundred thousand per month, and ten extra sparring lessons. Final offer. I don't care about babysitting, so think about that."

Weiss stared Stacey in the eyes for a long moment, both glaring at each other.

"I don't believe you," Weiss said.

"I'm only dating Alea, and she's only doing this for Ivy. That means that I could care **less** about this entire thing. In fact, I might not even **want** to do this. After all, I'd have to move houses, be shoved into a house with you all, **and** be woken up at night by babies crying."

Weiss sighed.

"Deal."

"Too late," Stacey said. "The deal's changed. I just convinced **myself** that that isn't worth it. Housing for eight, one hundred and twenty-five thousand per month, ten extra sparring lessons."

Weiss gaped at her.

"Don't take too long, I might just take that time to convince myself this is far too generous."

Weiss growled.

"Fine. Deal."

Stacey smirked and leaned back against Lexey, who stared down at her in complete wonder.

"Babe, that was amazing! You're incredible!" she hissed.

Stacey grinned at her, leaning back and pressing their lips together lovingly.

Weiss glared at her.

"You better be ready to move in in half an hour then."

"Deal," Stacey said, smirking as her girlfriends all told her how well she'd done in the negotiations.

To be honest, Stacey thought that was the best thing she'd gotten from it.

That and, she guessed, they got to help children or whatever.

Weiss sniffed and turned, pulling Ruby out of the room.

Ruby didn't seem bothered by them losing the negotiations, instead cheering in excitement that they got to have the babysitters of their dreams.

At least it was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a few questions. You don't have to answer, but I like taking surveys with you guys because your comments seriously make my day! They're always so funny and sweet!
> 
> 1) Does my writing of fight scenes bore you? Are they good or bad? Anything I can do to fix them before we get to the Vytal Tournament?  
> 2) Any funny suggestions? Maybe even for names of the other children? I haven't decided those yet actually, so act fast!  
> 3) Are the OCs annoying? I enjoy them and I've seen some good comments about them, but I'm trying not to overuse them!  
> 4) Do you know that you're appreciated not just for what you do by commenting but for the person you are? I know that a lot of people don't hear this enough, so I'm gonna say it. You're perfect the way you are and whatever you're going through, you're not alone. I hope you have a happy day and a happier life! Thanks for all the support you guys!


	15. Not Typical

Blake let out a sigh, running a hand through her hair.

"We don't have enough car seats for carpooling them to school," the cat faunus said.

"Eh, they can pile up in the back on the way home, and I can take some to school on my motorcycle," Yang said, smirking just slightly. She'd clearly been excited at the prospect of using it after not being able to after so long.

Blake rolled her eyes.

"Fine."

Yang grinned in excitement before she reached down to grab one of the babies, setting it into the baby seat while Akio giggled up at her.

A few moments later, the members of team ATLS and ORIN stepped outside of the school and came to join them.

Ruby gently leaned down to grab Lavey, holding her reverently as she went to slowly put her into her car seat.

Ivy tilted her head to the side with confusion, glancing at Alea.

"Why do you treat her like that?" she asked slowly.

Team RWBY glanced at her, and Ivy scoured her brain on how to communicate her thoughts.

Alea slid her hand into Ivy's.

"She wants to know why you coddle Lavey," Alea said.

"Because she's so small," Ruby said with a confused look on her face.

"No she's not," Ivy said.

"She wants to say that she's strong. That Lavey isn't going to need you to coddle her," Alea translated. "She's... strong."

"She's like fourteen inches tall," Yang said, rolling her eyes. "Of course we have to be careful with her."

Ivy fell silent, but she idly rubbed her thumb against the back of Alea's palm.

Meanwhile, team RWBY had already gotten all of their children settled in the back and were climbing into the front. That left the eight students to scramble inside and fight over the four remaining seats.

Alea took a seat without noticing the fighting, Natalie snatching the one next to her and pulling her wings in tight in an attempt to take up as little room as possible.

Rachel had all but flopped into her lap, grabbing Ivy by the hand and pulling her down with her.

Alea had been in a conversation with Ivy, the two having a discussion that nobody else could follow as they talked about everything from random solar system facts to their days. Due to this, Alea was shocked when Lexey all but fell into her lap, grinning up at her.

Lexey grabbed Stacey's hand in her own, pulling the other girl down.

Alea let out a sound of surprise and was about to speak, but Terresa walked over and picked up Stacey, holding the wiggling girl in the air. Terresa then took a seat on top of Alea and then let Stacey back down on her own lap.

Stacey just blinked in surprise.

"You do know that it would be far more effective and safer if I were to sit over there, right?" Stacey asked, pointing at an empty seat.

"Yeah. We know," Terresa said rolling her eyes.

"But that's not as fun," Lexey continued for her, leaning back and putting her head on Alea's head. She started to play with Stacey's hair, making her laugh quietly.

Natalie rolled her eyes.

"They're disgusting," the bat faunus said. "Can't believe we're going to be in the same house as them for the... the foreseeable future, I guess."

"Firstly, we're sitting together too. Secondly, I thought you liked them now," Rachel said.

Natalie shrugged and made a noncommittal noise.

Ivy didn't seem to be listening, her head tilted to the side just slightly as she watched the children that were buckled in their baby seats in front of them.

Alea glanced at her friend, raising an eyebrow before she followed her gaze.

"You excited, Ives?" she asked. Alea shifted her grip on her girlfriends, having been holding them in place to make sure that none of them fell off her lap and onto the ground, and reached her hand out, setting it on top of Ivy's.

Ivy glanced at her, raising her eyebrow just slightly. She hesitated for just a moment before she nodded.

"Did you know a synonym is-"

"A word that means the same thing as another, yes, I know," Alea said with a small smile on her face.

Meanwhile, at the front of the van, team RWBY was discussing their friends.

"Did you hear about Neo and Ciel?" Ruby asked excitedly, leaning against Weiss with an enthusiastic grin on her face.

"What about them?" Weiss asked, reaching one hand up and starting to play with the edge of Ruby's cloak.

"They're having twins!" Ruby cheered.

Blake glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.

"What gender?" she asked, smiling just slightly at the idea of their friends having babies of their own on the way.

"Oh! Right! They're bother girls! They just went for another checkup, and they're **identical**!" Ruby cheered excitedly, beaming at her wives.

Yang winced.

"Dust, those two are going to be a handful. Just think about it! They're both related to **Neo** of all people, not to mention **Ciel**! They've got the mischief of Neo and the brains of Ciel. I don't know if I want them hanging out with our kids," Yang said.

Blake and Weiss laughed while Ruby rolled her eyes.

"Hey! We're going to have to get used to it, because I want our babies to have play dates!" Ruby said.

"Can't Penny and Winter's kid be enough? Oh! And we've also got Coco and Velvet's now!" Yang said, grinning.

"Wait, how many are they having?" Ruby asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

Yang burst out laughing, shaking her head in her amusement as she turned a corner, nearing their house.

"That's... not an answer," Weiss said, shaking her head with a small, fond smile on her face.

"Velvet's a rabbit faunus, Weiss! Of course they're having a good number of kids!" Yang said, grinning.

"That's racist," Blake said, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, but is it accurate?" Yang prompted.

Blake hesitated for just a moment.

"Yes," she finally muttered, arms crossed against her chest. "It is actually quite common for rabbit faunus to have more children than most."

"Did you know that unlike most faunus, rabbit faunus have an average of four and a half children?" Ivy said from the back of the van.

Blake waved her hand for the student to be silent, clearly irritated.

Ivy glanced at Alea, frowning.

"Do people **not** enjoy learning?" Ivy asked gently.

"No, they do. It's just sometimes...," Alea hesitated, seeing the innocent look of confusion and a tinge of sadness on Ivy's face. Alea put on a goofy smile. "Sometimes people are just rude, Ives."

Ivy let out a quiet giggle, leaning back against Natalie as she smiled at Alea.

"Ha! Told you!" Yang cried triumphantly at her wife, grinning broadly.

"Just tell us," Weiss growled.

"Fine! You three are **no** fun!" Yang said, rolling her eyes. "They're having... triplets! Aw, those two are gonna be **overrun** , man! There's only two of them! There's almost _twice_ as many babies as them!"

Ruby was giggling, imagining their friends being overwhelmed by children like they were.

"Gender, Yang," Weiss reminded, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, right! Two girls, one boy!" Yang said as they pulled to a stop, a broad grin on her face.

Yang hopped out of the car and opened the backseat, reaching in to grab Lavey, cradling her gently against her chest.

"I don't know what Ivy was talking about," Yang said, using a silly voice to talk to her two month old daughter, "you're so tiny! You have to be protected! Yes you do! Yes you do!"

"Stop talking to her and take her inside," Weiss said with an irritable eye roll, shaking her head at the other girl.

Yang laughed and took a step toward the house, still grinning down at her youngest daughter.

As team RWBY grabbed their children, Ivy grabbed onto Natalie with one hand and Alea with the other, pulling them forward and grabbing the other three babies that had yet to be grabbed.

"Did you know that the typical family is known as a nuclear one? It means that there's one parent of each gender, plus however many children they have."

Alea glanced at her friend, raising an eyebrow.

Ivy grinned.

"I always hated anything typical."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would anyone be interested in me doing a short story over how Alea and Ivy became friends?


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random thought: So like... what if team RWBY had a fight on their anniversaries to be like brooklyn nine-nine's halloween heists.
> 
> Blake: It's over, Yang. I got a reservation for the fanciest diner in the whole world  
> Yang: *dramatic loser noises*

The children were finally put down in their cribs, which meant that it was time for team ATLS and ORIN to be dealt with.

Ruby beamed at them, all but skipping out of the room.

"Okay! You eight will be staying in the guest rooms **upstairs**. Try not to make too much noise because Adolpha has sensitive ears and it can make her start to cry. Also, do not, and I mean _do not_ , touch the thermostat under any circumstances, because we have it set very specifically to the temperature that it has to be. A few of our children get upset or sick if you change it. We can go into other specifics of the children later, but suffice it to say, they're very particular when it comes to their preferences," Ruby said.

Ivy wasn't looking at her, instead walking across the hall with her hand trailing against the wall beside her idly. She didn't seem to be listening, causing Ruby to glance at her.

"I'm going to be honest here," Ruby said quietly, "I have no idea when she's paying attention and when she isn't, even in class. Is she-"

Ivy didn't take her eyes off the house around them, trying to take in every detail as if she was looking at a beautiful painting.

"Adolpha doesn't like loud noises because of her wolf faunus ears, Jin gets upset when Adolpha cries because she's very emotionally reliant on her due to their close emotional bond, which makes Adolpha prone to frustration if Jin is too far away for too long. Akio has bad allergies, which you were going to mention later, and we need to take meticulous care of our hygiene to ensure that he isn't bothered. Aella is an attention hog and is prone to jealousy if you don't give her the attention that she needs, especially if you're doing something with one of her siblings. Crystal doesn't like the cold and is prone to shakes and sneezes if the temperature drops too much. Also, you have to be careful with her tail, especially with diapers, because it can get in the way. Lavey is the smallest child, which makes you worry for her well-being, but I don't understand why you're so worried about her. And Auburn is known for throwing up whenever he is upset or surprised. All in all, you have to remember exactly what each of them is known for being upset by and then react accordingly. You have to move fast so that you don't allow all seven of them to get upset at once, which happens quite often due to a cascading or butterfly effect. For example, Aella crying for attention can trigger Adolpha getting upset about noise, which upsets Jin, which then can cause Auburn to get upset at his crying siblings and then start to cry. After that, the others follow suit and you are soon left with seven children that are crying and need attention."

Ivy hesitated for a moment, her gaze finally focusing on Ruby for only a moment.

"Did I miss anything?" she questioned.

Alea grinned at the words, her expression coming out as smug, but truly it was just proud of her friend.

"No... no, I think you got most of it," Ruby said, giving her a small smile. "Sorry, I just wanted to make sure that you were understanding everything."

Ivy's eyes, which were typically distracted and filled with a light, almost idle sense of enjoyment for the world, suddenly turned a bit darker. She looked away from Ruby.

"No. No, I understand everything. Too much, sometimes."

There was a beat of awkward silence, and Alea grabbed her friend on the shoulder, giving her a look of understanding.

Meanwhile, Rachel reached down and grabbed Ivy's head in her hands. She all but broadcasted her thoughts at full force.

Rachel loved Ivy's eyes. They were always slightly distracted, never looking at what Ivy was paying attention to. When they had first met, Rachel had been slightly disconcerted at the way Ivy never seemed to focus on anything with her eyes, instead either seeming to never move her gaze or be constantly looking around the room, never fully satisfied with what she had seen and yearning for more. Back then, Rachel had secretly thought that Ivy looked a lot like a blind person, as if she was always listening for things rather than looking at them, never focusing her gaze on anything that seemed important to anyone else. But now Rachel understood. She loved the way Ivy saw the world, so different from everyone else. Rachel could never understand half of what Ivy saw, but trying to see the world through her eyes was more than enough to satisfy all of the curiosity in Rachel's soul. The way Ivy saw the world was different from anyone else, but it was beautiful anyways. Or maybe it was beautiful **because** it was so different from everyone else. Ivy saw the beauty in everything, because she could see everything in a light that nobody else could.

And one of the best parts of Rachel's day was listening to Ivy speak, listening to how she viewed the world.

Ivy stared at her with shock before her gaze turned gentle.

"I love you," Ivy whispered.

Rachel flushed slightly when she noticed that everyone else was watching them (Alea with hearts for eyes, clearly happy for her friend to have a girlfriend like her).

"I love you too," Rachel muttered awkwardly. "But don't make me say it too much. I've got a reputation, ya see. Gotta act heartless."

Ivy giggled and shook her head as she pulled away from the other girl and started up the stairs, her hand tracing the wall as she passed.

The rest of them followed after her, Natalie and Rachel with fond looks in their eyes that made Alea laugh quietly. Natalie gave her a small glare for the snickering, but Alea looked back at her with an innocent, excited grin. It came across as a mixture of a smug smirk and seductive smile. Natalie, on an intellectual level, knew that, but she still had trouble understanding it. She thought that was probably an effect of the semblance itself.

The eight were shown their rooms upstairs, and Alea was already falling onto her bed.

She opened her arms and Lexey was about to fall into it, but Alea didn't seem to notice, one hand reaching out to grab onto Ivy's hand.

Ivy fell against Alea, grinning at her before she burrowed against her chest.

Lexey scowled slightly, rolling her eyes.

"I've heard of sisters before misters, but we're not your misters," Lexey said, giving Alea a small smirk.

"Bromances before romances," Ivy said with a completely straight face.

"Pals before gals," Alea added almost immediately after.

"Sisteresses before mistresses," Ivy said, suddenly starting to giggle.

Alea burst out laughing, pulling Ivy closer and grinning down at the other girl.

Their respective girlfriends stared down at them, looking just a bit disappointed at their words.

Alea suddenly smirked, clearly her throat. When she spoke, her voice was deeper, clearly imitating a guy.

"Bros before gardening equipment."

Ivy was giggling loudly now, and it soon erupted into real laughs, and she buried her head in her friend's shoulder, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Mates before dates," Ivy finally offered, her voice sort of muffled by Alea's shoulder but still capable of being understood.

"Okay this needs to stop," Rachel said. "Do it before we have to separate you two."

Alea glanced down at Ivy, who looked up at her.

The two burst out into laughter, but didn't say anything else.

"So are we just okay with this girl stealing our girlfriend?" Stacey asked.

Terresa shrugged, dropping down onto the bed beside Alea, who reached her arm out to wrap around her shoulders.

When Ruby had left the room, all eight had somehow dropped onto the bed (even Oscar, who had been pulled down by Rachel when he had tried to escape).

Ruby found the scene so cute and reminiscent of her own days at Beacon, so she didn't interrupt them.

But if the babies started crying, she totally would and would drag Ivy and Alea downstairs.

Until then... she let them have their fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay but like can you tell that Alea and Ivy brOTP is one of my favs? I just... I didn't mean to make their characters similar at first, but I really like the parallels I made between them.


	17. A Natural

Ivy had never held a baby before in her life. She was the youngest sibling in her family, and therefore hadn't had the chance, nor had she made many friends that might possibly have children. Not to mention she wasn't exactly the type that one would leave in charge of their child's safety.

As Ivy knew, she wasn't exactly a well liked person, considering she often scared people.

But she was... well, as Ruby had put it, "you're a natural!"

Ivy rocked one crib back and forth, making Adolpha giggle, while she held Jin in her arms.

Alea was also good with children, but that wasn't a surprise, considering she was the oldest of five children, meaning that she had helped with four different babies.

"Ivy told me that you're a little fighter, aren't you?" Alea asked, bouncing up and down gently with Lavey in her arms. "Yes you are, yes you are!"

Ivy gave her a small smile before she let her eyes fall shut.

Ivy took a step forward, her foot stopping its rocking of Adolpha's crib.

Ivy moved through the room with the grace of a dancer, twirling in circles as she moved between the room between the cribs. Her dancing made Jin giggle and put her hands together in an almost clapping way.

As Ivy passed the children, she reached out her hand and let them gently tap them on their feet or hands, erupting giggles and laughter from them.

Ivy was beaming distractedly, not looking at anything in as she twirled in a gentle arc, coming to a halt just before she bumped into Alea. Alea put a steadying hand to her waist to make sure she didn't accidentally tip over.

"You're really good at that, you know."

"Did you know that-"

"Yes, faunus have an average of three babies. But that's not what I was saying you're good at," Alea whispered.

"Then what is?"

"Dancing. You're very good at dancing, Ives."

Ivy raised an eyebrow with a small smirk. She set Jin back down in her crib before she slowly turned, twirling in a small arc, her feet seeming to barely touch the ground.

She held out her hand to Alea, who laughed quietly.

"No way, Ives. I can't dance."

"Did you know that the majority of women find dancing an attractive quality in their partners?" Ivy asked.

"How dare you use my girlfriends against me?" Alea asked playfully.

Ivy just gave her a playful smile, reaching her hand out further.

Alea finally accepted and set her hand in Ivy's palm.

Ivy pulled her forward and put one hand on her waist, the other on her hand.

Alea was clumsy and almost fell over as soon as Ivy took one step forward. Alea scrambled backward, clearly afraid that she might stand there like a brick wall and cause Ivy to bump into her. Alea was fully aware that she was much taller than Ivy, and physically stronger as well, and that the other girl might get hurt (or at least a bit frustrated) if she hit Alea, considering she did sort of look like a brick wall in comparison to her small, slender friend.

Ivy made Alea's first blunder seem like a purposeful step, following her forward and showing her the steps with ease.

It took about fifteen minutes, and several near misses where Alea had almost bumped into baby cribs and sent the children falling to the floor (Alea had immediately pulled away from Ivy and grabbed the crib, settling it with an apology, as if the babies could understand her. The child would just giggle, clearly effected by her semblance that made them all excited at her mere presence), Alea had finally gotten the steps down.

Alea had on a proud smile and was about to speak to Ivy about how excited she was to have finally breached the gap between not knowing how to dance and not constantly stepping on her dance partner's feet. Yes, feet, as in plural, and both at the same time. Not Even Ivy knew how she did that.

But anyways, Alea had been about to comment on it, but Ivy gained a mischievous smirk and she stepped forward, reaching her hand up and putting it on Alea's back.

When the team leader opened her mouth to ask what she was doing, Ivy pressed forward and the team leader let out a squeak.

She was suddenly in a dip, and she was worried that Ivy might drop her. Not because she would fall, but because she might pull her friend down with her.

After holding the dip for a moment, Ivy set her back on her feet, giggling to herself while Alea glared playfully at her.

"Did you do that just to mess with you?"

"Did you kn-"

"Give me a straight answer here, Ives."

"Neither of us are straight."

Alea stared at her friend for a moment before rolling her eyes.

"Am I the only one that you're this mean to?" Alea asked.

"What can I say?" Ivy asked. "You're the only person I'm this close to that I'm not dating."

"So you take out all your meanness on me?" Alea asked, making a fake, offended gasp.

"I just taught you to dance. Now you can be even more flirtatious," Ivy said, grinning.

Alea rolled her eyes again.

"You know that I don't flirt," Alea whined.

"Your girlfriends would beg to differ," Ivy said, her smirk not falling.

Alea sighed, shaking her head before she leaned over a crib.

"You don't think I flirt, do you, Akio?" Alea asked in a baby voice. "Do you?"

Akio started to giggle as Alea tickled his foot.

"I don't know, I think you might have just seduced him," Ivy said.

Alea gave her a pouting look.

"Did you know that pouting should not be rewarded, because it encourages bad behavior?" Ivy asked.

Alea gave her her secret weapon: puppy eyes.

Ivy let out a scoff, but she was giving the other girl a small, fond smile anyways.

"You should go show Stacey that you can dance."

Alea grinned in excitement.

"Are you sure you can watch them by yourself?"

Ivy nodded and gave her friend a grin, pushing her toward the door.

"Have fun."

Alea all but skipped out of the room, turning to face the children before she started to dance through the room to a music that only she could hear. Her shoes were off, so she could hear the entire world around her. From the vibrations of the air to the vibrations of the ground to the intrinsic vibrations of the objects that surrounded her, creating a **thrum, thrum, thrum** sound that sounding almost like drums.

The air around her wiggled to the objects moving through it, creating a sound that was similar to triangles and flutes and-

"What are you doing?" Weiss asked. Despite her words, and her typical demeanor toward Ivy, her tone wasn't harsh.

"Dancing, I suppose."

"Why?"

Ivy hesitated.

"I wanted to."

"I thought you were watching the children while we took a break for lunch," Weiss said.

"I am. They enjoy me dancing."

"They do?" Weiss asked, stepping forward and putting one hand in Crystal's crib. The eldest triplet reached out with her grubby little fingers, wrapping her hands around Weiss' finger and making the former heiress smile down at her fondly.

"I think that my connection with the world around me is a calming presence for your children because they don't have a large connection to the world, which I know from experience is a very scary experience."

Weiss gave Ivy a small smile, nodding.

"My semblance can also sometimes affect the mood of those around me, especially those that are susceptible to it. That can include children."

"How does it change their mood?" Weiss asked.

"It depends on my mood. If I'm happy, then it can make them happy. If I'm sad, it can make them sad."

"Are you happy, then?" Weiss asked.

Ivy let her eyes fall shut as she spun through the room. Two familiar faces flashed behind her eyelids, and she could sense that her girlfriends were upstairs.

"I'm ecstatic."

-

Alea stepped into the room, grinning as she saw that Stacey was the only one currently in their team's bedroom.

"Hey, Al," Stacey said, not looking up from her scroll.

Alea put on the best flirty smile she herself could make.

Stacey glanced up and her heart skipped a beat, being preoccupied with getting caught in her throat. Alea was staring down at her with the most heart-stopping seductive smirk.

Alea slowly slid her scroll from her pocket, taking Stacey's from her hand and turning it off before she started to play slow music from her own.

Stacey raised an eyebrow, forcing herself to respond.

"W-what are you-"

Alea grabbed her hand and lifted her to her feet, pulling her closer and setting one hand on her waist.

As the slow song started up, Alea took them through the slow steps that Ivy had taught her.

Their feet were light on the ground as they seemed to all but glide across the floor, Alea focusing on both emulating exactly what she had seen her friend do _and_ smiling down at her girlfriend. That was almost too much, but she managed.

Stacey was staring up at her with a shocked expression on her face.

As the song drew to a close, Alea finally adjusted her grip smoothly, running one hand up her back before she leaned forward, guiding her girlfriend into a dip.

Stacey stared up at Alea, face flushing as she reached her hands up to grab Alea around the neck. She pulled down the team leader and connected their lips.

Alea silently thanked her friend and grinned into the kiss.

-

Weiss watched Ivy as she spun through the room with the babies, the children slowly being lulled to sleep.

Suddenly, the door opened and Natalie stuck her head in.

Ivy stopped what she was doing, opening her eyes with a small smile.

"Hello, Nat."

Natalie grinned and quietly opened the door, stepping inside.

"Hey. Just wanted to check on you, make sure you were doing alright."

"I'm doing... great," Ivy said, reaching up to set her hands on Natalie's wings, pulling her closer playfully. She set her head on Natalie's shoulder, eyes falling shut again.

Weiss glanced at her children and saw that they were all smiling just slightly, Akio having just fallen asleep.

Ivy really was a natural at this whole babysitting thing.


	18. Practice

Ivy had her eyes closed as she spun gently in a circle, her sword coming up to block a blow from Ruby's scythe.

She had felt the other girl's approach, her feet not touching the ground, but her movement disrupting the air around her due to her speed.

They were practicing for the tournament in the backyard, the large fenced in area providing a perfect opportunity for the students and teachers. The ground was slightly uneven, but not enough to mess someone up, although Ivy could feel some holes in the ground. There had been all out sparring practices, several of them, actually, and this was one of them.

Yang's semblance was on in the blink of an eye as she shot a punch toward Rachel. Rachel absorbed the hit before she dropped down, kicking her foot out to hit Yang in the leg.

Meanwhile, Natalie was flying through the air with tricks and flips, avoiding an attack from one of Weiss' summonings.

Oscar was defending himself from an attack from Blake, who was disappearing and reappearing too fast for Oscar to be able to keep up with his bubbles.

Alea, Stacey, Terresa, and Lexey were watching the fight with excited grins on their faces as they saw the two teams fighting.

They were in the middle of the spar, many of their Auras having been significantly drained, and Ivy groaned quietly.

A second after she'd done so, the baby monitor went off, filled with crying. They'd set it down on the porch in case they needed to check on the children, which they obviously needed to do now.

"I'll get it," Blake said, grabbing Yang by the hand and dragging her inside. She knew better than to take Weiss or Ruby inside, considering both of them were still super excited to get to use their semblances after such a long time where they hadn't been allowed to.

Alea grabbed the closest teammate she could find, Stacey, and dragged her toward the fight, taking the place of Blake and Yang.

Ivy grinned, her eyes opening as they fell on Alea.

The team leader beamed back at her, semblance already starting to flare as her gaze landed on Ivy.

"Okay, Natalie, you can take care of Oscar and Stacey you can go after Ivy-"

Stacey shook her head.

"With all due respect, Mrs. Belladonna-Schnee, I think we should leave Ivy and Alea to their own devices. And I recommend that you don't get in their way," Stacey said.

Ruby frowned in confusion.

"What? Why?" she asked.

Alea wasn't listening anymore, her sword going in a slow, lackadaisical circle as she neared her friend.

Ivy's eyes were completely focused, something that was rarely ever seen by even Natalie and Rachel, as she had her weapon held in a tight grip. It contradicted her normally loose hold, making Ivy look actually terrifying for once. Weiss glanced at the pair, a slightly scared look in her eyes.

She decided that she would leave them alone after all, turning her attention back to the summoning that she had attacking Natalie as she flew through the air.

Alea and Ivy got into the rhythm of their fight, seeming to dance as their weapons collided faster than the normal eye could see.

"I might regret teaching you to dance," Ivy said with a smirk.

Alea spun in a tight circle, holding her sword behind her back and blocking an attack from Ivy.

"Show off," Ivy muttered.

"You're one to talk," Alea replied.

Ivy gave her a smirk and swung in a tight circle, about to strike her friend.

Meanwhile, Oscar was hit in the chest by a rapid swing from Ruby's scythe, sending him flying back.

"Hey, be careful with that thing, he's mine," a voice called.

Team RWBY, ATLS, and ORIN all paused, glancing to the side to see who had interrupted their sparring lesson.

Oscar grinned in excitement, jumping to his feet and racing past Ruby.

"Whit-Whit!" he cheered, throwing his arms around his boyfriend's neck.

Ruby glanced at Weiss as the two started to kiss, finding that her wife looked disgusted at her brother and his boyfriend making out in their backyard.

Weiss cleared her throat, causing the two to pull apart. Whitley gave Weiss a glare, but Oscar was just grinning.

"What are you doing here? I mean, I'm glad to see you, but what's the occasion?" Oscar asked, grinning at his boyfriend.

Whitley rolled his eyes, glancing at Alea, who was watching him with a seductive smirk on her face. It made him uncomfortable.

"I'm here for your tournament, Oscar. Of course I'm going to be here to watch your team win."

Oscar laughed and gave him a fond smile in response.

"Well, it'll be either us or team ATLS," he said.

"Definitely team ATLS!" Terresa called, letting out a cheer of excitement.

Stacey rolled her eyes and set her hand on her shoulder to make Terresa shut up.

"New friends of yours?" Whitley asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I guess you could say that," Stacey muttered.

Lexey elbowed her.

"Yeah, they are! Oh, come on, you're gonna love them!"

Oscar introduced them quickly, finishing with Alea.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Schnee," Alea said flirtatiously, smirking at him.

Whitley glared at her unconsciously, pulling a step back. Alea just smirked at him, her gaze following his movements intently.

"Babe, you're doing it again," Stacey said, rolling her eyes.

"I am?" Alea said, frowning.

"Let me break that Aura of yours, and you won't have anymore issues," Ivy said, smirking at her.

"That's just cruel, Ives."

Ivy smirked at her, twirling her sword between her fingers with a sort of deft deadliness.

"I know."

"Don't worry about her flirting, she's really happy with her teammates," Oscar whispered.

Alea grinned, nodding excitedly.

"I am! Definitely!"

Ivy rolled her eyes.

"Are we going to get back to the spar, or am I going to have to wait to beat you up?" Ivy asked.

Her teammates glanced at her.

"Since when could she be so...," Natalie trailed off, watching her with wide eyes.

"Articulate?" Stacey offered.

"Rude?" Terresa suggested.

"Awesome?" Lexey said.

"Yes, but also," Rachel grinned, "hot."

Natalie smacked her idly with her wing, but she seemed to agree.

Ruby and Weiss rolled their eyes and shared a suffering look at the young students.

"Were we ever that disgusting?" Weiss whispered to her wife.

"You still are!" Natalie called.

Weiss glared at her before she rolled her eyes, turning to her brother.

"Do you want to meet your nieces and nephews?" Weiss asked.

"I already met them."

"Do you want to see them again?" Weiss questioned, rolling her eyes.

"Obviously. I didn't just come here to see you and Oscar."

Oscar gasped in offense, but Whitley ignroed him, following Weiss into the house to see the seven ( _seven_ ).

Oscar watched Whitley be guided inside by Weiss with a fond smile on his face.

It was true that this tournament was going to be... interesting.


	19. The Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took too long, but... it's over 4k words!

Blake let out a quiet laugh as she looked back in the van.

The tournament had snuck up on them, but today was the day! Or, well, it had snuck up on team RWBY, considering they had seven very loud distractions, but teams ORIN and ATLS were more than ready for the tournament.

They, along with Whitley (to Weiss' joy), were already at the tournament, but team RWBY was bordering on the edge of being late, due to said distractions.

"Are you sure that the noise won't upset Adolpha?" Ruby asked worriedly, setting her hand on top of Blake's knee and drawing the cat faunus' attention to her.

"We're going to be in a private room watching behind glass," Blake pointed out before she started to riffle through her bag, "and besides...," she grabbed the item finally with a triumphant grin on her face, "I brought little baby ear muffs!"

"Are you sure those earmuffs would work on her?" Weiss asked skeptically. "They're built for warmth, not noise absorption."

"Why must you shoot down all of Blake's dreams?" Yang asked.

"I'm not shooting down dreams!" Weiss hissed. "I'm being realistic, that's all!"

"You're realistically shooting down her dreams with a realistic shotgun," Yang said.

"That doesn't make any sense," Weiss replied, frowning at the blond.

"Because you're being too realistic!" Yang whispered as she pulled into the parking spot.

Weiss rolled her eyes at her wife before she moved to the backseat.

Blake took Adolpha and slipped the baby earmuffs over her ears and pulled her against her chest, purring quietly so that the baby could feel the comforting vibrations against her back.

Adolpha seemed happy enough, even as they walked closer to the loud cheering from the stadium.

The four pushed almost all of their children in strollers toward the private room, with the exception of Auburn and Adolpha, both of whom were strapped to different parents chests (Yang and Blake respectively).

Once the four had reached the private room, they were excited to see that their friends were all waiting there for them.

Sun darted over and gently leaned down so that he could grab Aella out of her crib, knowing that she would want as much attention as possible, and Sun was **more** than willing to give that attention.

"Aw, you're just so cute, aren't you?" he whispered, bouncing her up and down, though he was clearly careful to keep his tail out of her reach after the last incident with it.

Aella seemed **more** than willing to accept the attention, giggling up at him while she opened and closed her hands. Sun gave in and let his tail be grabbed by said hands, though he kept it away from her mouth. She didn't seem to mind, enjoying the way that his tail kept wiggling slightly as she held it.

Meanwhile, some of the others had moved over and grabbed the children as well, wanting to give them attention and help team RWBY not be so overwhelmed with the baby army they had created.

They spent a few minutes talking about the pregnant members of their group, but their conversation was cut abruptly short as the first match started up.

-

There was cheering. **Loud** cheering. This was something that Ivy had not accounted for, but she knew how to fix it. She kicked off her shoes as she walked onto the arena, causing her teammates to stare at her.

They knew why she had done it, to distract herself from the noise by listening to the world beneath her, but they wished that she _hadn't_.

Ivy was what Rachel had referred to as "a secret weapon but, like, not just any weapon, but an explosive weapon."

Natalie had replied "Do you mean a bomb?"

Rachel had shushed her with a wave of her hand, focusing on the other girl.

Now that was in the past, and Ivy seemed to have forgotten that she was supposed to be hiding her semblance from the people around her, especially their enemies.

Ivy's mind whirled as she tried to figure out what to say to fix what she'd done.

"They... they, uh, didn't fit," Ivy said.

"What?" Natalie asked, knowing that their words were being transmitted over the loud speakers.

"The shoes. They didn't fit. I need new ones."

"You and your shoes," Rachel said, rolling her eyes with a small smirk.

Ivy glanced to the side of the arena, her gaze becoming slightly unfocused.

Rachel subtly elbowed her, forcing the other girl to look at her.

"Don't get distracted, remember?" Rachel said with a hint to her words.

Ivy had almost forgotten that most people didn't randomly stare into the distance without any reason.

Rachel rolled her eyes at the evident confusion on Ivy's face.

Ivy's eyes cleared and she nodded, turning her attention to the other team that they were facing.

It seemed that everyone was watching Ivy, thinking that she was, most likely, some sort of insane asylum escapee or mentally disabled person of another brand. Despite that, Ivy took a deep breath, pushing away her fears and doubts, putting on her practiced "normal person" smile.

"Oh, sorry, Rach!" Ivy forced a giggle and reached her hand up to twirl her hair. "You know that I get distracted so easily!"

Rachel barely held back a snort.

"Yeah... yeah," Rachel cleared her throat as she fought a grin, "I know you do, Ives, but this is really important, so we're going to need you to focus for the next ten to fifteen minutes. Think you can do that?"

Ivy chewed on her bottom lip and pretended to be deep in thought.

"Yeah, I think so!"

Rachel shook her head and looked down, letting her hair cover her face to hide the smirk that had grown across her lips.

"Good. That's good, Ives," Natalie said, her face a perfect picture of frustration and irritation at her flippant teammate. She threw in an eye roll for good measure.

Before they could continue their play acting, they looked up and noticed that the other team, team BRBN (barbarian) from Shade academy, was whispering to one another, their gazes darting to Ivy.

Oscar had a proud smile on his face, and he chanced a look at his teammates, giving them a subtle thumbs up.

Natalie rolled her eyes and pulled out her weapon, though it was still in gum container form, which made her look as if she cared even less.

"Let's just get this over with before ginger over there gets distracted," Natalie said, shaking her head.

The announcer started to speak, and all four members of team ORIN looked up with shocked expressions.

"ALRIGHT FOLKS!" Nora's familiar voice called out loudly. "You all know why we're here: to watch these eight children try to _completely destroy one another in a battle to the_ ** _death_** _!_ "

"It's a battle that ends when all four Auras of one team have been broken," Ren's calm voice cut in.

Nora shoved him to the side, muttering something about him not being dramatic enough.

"On the left side, you have team **ORIN** ," Nora dragged their name out extravagantly, "which is composed of Natalie Vine, Ivy Hanson, Rachel Fern, and team leader... Oscar Pine, also known as Oz-"

Jaune clapped a hand over his girlfriend's mouth, making Nora grumble and pull at the hand.

"Oscar Pine. He is also known as Oscar Pine."

Nora finally pulled the hand away with a sigh, but she didn't correct him despite her obvious frustration at not being able to talk about her friend's nickname.

"And on the other side is," the sound of Nora shuffling through papers could be heard, clearly because she couldn't remember Shade's team, "team BRBN, filled with members Brandon Gero, Ranger Hans, Nicholas Rodgers, and team leader Bartholomew Bants!"

Nora didn't elaborate on the four, though it was clear that she had wanted to do so with team ORIN.

"And they will be fighting on a randomly generated battlefield that will be determined **now**!" Nora cheered enthusiastically.

Just as the words exited her mouth, the options started to scroll in front of team ORIN on a large screen that could be seen across the entirety of the stadium.

It finally came to a grinding halt, and Ivy could already tell where it would stop. Despite herself, she didn't let her response be seen until everyone else knew what it was.

The option had landed on **water** , and Rachel had a smug smirk that drew across her lips.

She cleared her throat and fell into character.

"Nat, can you take care of...," she pointedly looked at Ivy. "I can take care of these guys."

"Yeah, I can take care of her," Natalie said, though she rolled her eyes. "Why are you always saddling me with the dead weight?" she muttered, though she made clear that it was loud enough that the microphones could pick up her words and broadcast them.

Natalie grabbed onto Ivy's hands, and Ivy pretended that she had been drawn out of a distracted haze.

"Oh? Are we starting now?" Ivy asked.

Natalie rolled her eyes, though Ivy could feel her excitement radiating from her hand like a pulse.

"Yes, Ivy, we're staring now."

"Okay!" Ivy said, a ditsy smile on her face.

Just then, the platform beneath their feet started to shift, water filling the arena as different islands rose up as well.

The water wasn't exceedingly deep, though it was enough so that no person could stand in it with their head above water, and there were more than a few islands made completely of sand that offered refuge from the water. There was also a small, sunken pirate ship, one on each side of the platform, that was clearly meant to be used as an escape if one team found themselves needing a base of defenses.

"Natalie, take care of Ivy. Rachel, this is up to you and me," Oscar said, pulling his staff forward.

Natalie reached out and grabbed her girlfriend around the waist.

"Climb on my back," Natalie barked, eyes narrowed as she looked down at Ivy.

"Hmm? Why?" Ivy asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"Because!" Natalie snapped.

"Okay!"

Ivy did as instructed, letting her hand rest on top of Natalie's bare skin. Her thoughts were immediately capable of being transferred to Natalie, and she let them flow into the faunus like a gushing river.

Natalie barely held back a smirk as she pushed off into the air with her wings, soaring way above the playing field.

Meanwhile, Rachel and Oscar still stood on the middle of the platform, which was entirely different from the rest, being made of stone and cement.

Rachel smirked and lazily drew her weapon, pressing a button on it and extending it into quarterstaff form.

"Well, boys," Rachel popped her neck with one hand before she spun the quarterstaff in her hands, "where do you prefer to be beaten? On land, or in the sea? Because I personally think it would _so much more fun_ to beat you before you have the chance to leave the middle. How about you, Ozzy boy?"

Oscar rolled his eyes.

"I told you not to call me that, Rachel... but yes, that would be a rather fun way to win, wouldn't it?"

The four seemed a bit intimidated, but they raised their weapons and seemed intent on showing Rachel that they were **not** cowards.

Rachel smirked and turned her semblance on, letting her eyes glow gray. It was soon followed by the rest of her body as she began to shine like the sun. Or, well, it was gray, so she supposed that she glowed like the **moon** , but that metaphor wasn't as good, now was it?

Rachel could almost hear Ivy in her head saying "Actually, did you know that it was a simile, because the word like or as was used?"

Rachel ignored the sound in her head and took off toward their opponents with inhuman speed.

The others let out cries of shock, which were soon followed by sounds of pain as Rachel slammed her quarterstaff against the first student she came across. The boy was sent **flying** backward, hitting the water with a loud _splash_ that sounded as if he had taken a bellyflop.

Rachel didn't waste a moment, spinning on her heel and twirling her weapon as fast as she could. The quarterstaff moved with impossible speed, blocking a bullet that had come from one of her enemy's guns.

While they were distracted, Oscar raced forward, having been much slower than Rachel when she was using her reserves, and slammed his shoulder against the enemy's chest. He was sent flying into the water, but not before he could grab onto Oscar's leg, pulling him down.

Rachel's hand shot out to grab onto Oscar's coat and pulled him back onto the platform before he could fall into the water.

Oscar gave her a small grin, but Rachel had already let down, spinning on her heel. Her advanced ears had heard a footstep and she spun as the sound of a bullet clicking into place radiated through her skull.

She started to spin her quarterstaff even as she moved, but she wasn't quick enough.

A bullet shot through the air... but it didn't strike Rachel.

The bullet hit her attacker, who had had a shotgun raised in her direction, and the force of the impact sent him tumbling into the water.

Rachel's eyes darted toward where her girlfriends flew above her, and she flashed them both a wink and a grin, knowing that Natalie had done the shooting, but Ivy had let her know what was happening.

Ivy didn't seem to be paying attention, humming to herself, but Rachel could tell just how much she was focused on the current battle due to Natalie's next actions.

While Rachel dashed forward, kicking her final opponent on the platform in the leg, making him fall toward the ground. As he plummeted down, his face struck her quarterstaff, and Rachel did a jump kick, pushing him into the water with his teammates.

Natalie flew overhead, her gun shooting rapidly, yet precisely. None of her gunshots missed, each of her bullets flying true and striking their enemies as they tried to surface.

Ivy's eyes were closed now, which made Rachel sure that Ivy was focusing on the bodies in the water, trying to block out all distractions as she guided Natalie's actions silently.

Rachel waited until her girlfriends were finished with their aerial assualt before she gave Oscar a smirk and a wink.

Before he could ask what she was doing, Rachel had thrown herself forward, falling toward the water. She turned on her semblance, flaring her chest reserves and causing that part of her body to light up a brilliant shade of gray. She took one final breath and let her mouth close just as she fell into the water.

Her eyes opened instantly, and she smirked at her adversaries, who were all trying to swin away from her at top speed.

Rachel rolled her eyes before she took off through the water, her legs and arms pumping quickly and sending her careening through the water.

When she reached the closest enemy, Rachel's hand shot out and wrapped around his ankle, pulling him down under. She used the momentum to rocket herself up, not even bothering to take a breath before she slammed her quarterstaff against his chest, sending him crashing down toward the bottom of the water.

Rachel fell back into the water, thankful for her semblance allowing her to have far more air capacity in her chest than most. She rocketed through the water as if she were running on dry land, grabbing onto the next enemy as he attempted to reach an island.

Rachel could hear gunshots behind her, and she was certain that the sound was her girlfriends shooting the enemy she had almost drowned earlier.

There was a buzzer that sounded just a moment before Rachel slammed her quarterstaff into her adversary repeatedly.

An Aura had broken.

Behind her, Oscar had jumped into the water and pulling the man with the broken Aura out of the water. Rachel was thankful that someone else had taken the time to do so, considering she herself was trying to end this fight as quickly as possible so that she could save her reserves for later.

Rachel pushed the second enemy down further into the water and vaulted herself forward by jabbing her quarterstaff against his chest.

Natalie and Ivy shot at the one that Rachel had left behind her, and she heard the buzzer sound yet again.

Oscar threw himself into the water, saving their enemy once again.

Rachel glanced ahead of her and saw that the two final enemies were on the island ahead of her.

They were shooting into the water, and Rachel ducked down quickly, feeling her lungs burn just slightly. She was running out of time, but that was alright. Rachel twisted in the water to avoid a bullet, diving down toward the bottom of the water. When she finally reached it, she swiveled and planted her feet against the floor, pushing off with great strength and swimming toward the surface quickly.

When she finally surfaced, she _burst_ from the water, flying up several feet into the air. Her hand reached up, and another grabbed it immediately.

"Fancy seeing you here," Rachel said, running one hand down her face and spitting out a bit of water.

"Your hair looks funny," Ivy said, grinning down at her.

"Thanks, babe," Rachel said, rolling her eyes.

Ivy reached one hand down and brushed some hair out of Rachel's face.

 _You did amazing_.

The words echoed in Rachel's head, the sound of Ivy's melodious voice filling her mind.

Rachel sent back her own thoughts, and Ivy beamed down at her.

Natalie suddenly swerved, and Rachel's grip on her hand tightened.

"Mind trying not to get us all killed, Nat?" Rachel asked.

"Maybe you should keep your mouth shut, cause now I'm considering dropping you," Natalie replied.

Rachel snorted.

"You love me **far** too much to let that happen."

"Sure I do," Natalie said.

Without warning, the faunus let go of Rachel's hand, and she was sent flying toward the ground.

Rachel was grinning anyways, raising her quarterstaff in both hands as she cannonballed onto the sand beside their enemies, slamming her feet against the ground before turning her semblance on fully.

She was a blur of motion as she shot toward the first enemy, her quarterstaff taking him in the gut.

He grunted, but held his ground, attempting to strike her with his sword.

Rachel ducked with ease, throwing herself to the side as her raised Aura warned her of the oncoming attack from the second adversary.

Oscar finally crawled up onto the island, and Rachel offered him a grin as she performed a barrel roll, ducking to the side to avoid another attack.

"Took you long enough, Ozzy boy."

"Not all of us have two girlfriends that are willing to give us a lift."

"Oh, you took too long **far** before that," Rachel said, her quarterstaff a blur as it shot toward the enemy in front of her, taking them behind the legs. She pulled it toward herself, knocking his legs out from under him.

Meanwhile, Oscar shot forward and slammed his staff against the other remaining enemy, hitting him in the side.

"Finally contributing?" Rachel asked with a smug smirk.

A gunshot rang, a bullet striking Rachel's opponent in the shoulder. Rachel didn't have to look to know that Natalie had fired it, though she knew that Ivy would be pointing out later that she had been pivotal to helping that shot.

"Hey! I made sure that your blantant lust for destruction didn't kill two people!" Oscar pointed out.

Rachel laughed at the words, spinning on her heel as she brought her quarterstaff forward and slammed it against her enemy.

He stumbled back and almost hit the water, but he was swooped up.

Natalie had a smirk on her face as she held him aloft by the collar of his shirt.

He squirmed, and Natalie glanced back at Ivy.

"Ya sure?" the faunus asked.

Ivy smirked in response, and Natalie dropped the enemy.

Natalie swooped back down as he screamed, grabbing onto his ankle with her right hand before pulling back up.

"Do you really have to embarrass him like that?" Rachel asked, her hip cocked to the side with one hand on it.

"Aw, come on, Rach, it's fun!" Natalie said. The man in her grasp was squirming and trying to get a shot at her, but Ivy was silently telling her girlfriend how to avoid it.

"It's boastful and rude, Nat."

Natalie raised an eyebrow and looked down at her.

"Don't make me do it, Nat. You know you don't like it."

Natalie held up her enemy higher.

"Drop it! Drop it, Nat!" Rachel called.

She didn't seem to notice that, behind her, Oscar was fighting for his life. While Rachel talked to her girlfriends, Oscar was holding up a sword that was an inch away from his neck.

Rachel smirked when she saw Natalie glare at her.

"Just because I'm a faunus doesn't mean I'm some pet, Rach."

"Drop it! Drop the mean man!" Rachel called.

"He doesn't look that mean," Ivy said, looking down at the squirming enemy.

"You're right, Ives. Drop the **poor** man," Rachel said. "He's been through enough."

Behind Rachel, Oscar reached his foot up and kicked his enemy in the chest and sent him flying a few feet back. Rachel still didn't seem to notice the fight.

Natalie smirked.

"Fine!"

Natalie let him go, and he cried out in shock as he fell toward the water. Natalie whipped her gun forward and shot him as he fell, striking the same place with every shot with perfect accuracy.

Natalie stopped the moment the buzzer went off, diving down into the water. When she and Ivy came up a moment later, she was holding him, once again by the ankle, and she flew toward the platform, setting him down gently.

"Thank you for fighting with us!" Ivy called, waving as Natalie flew to the side with Ivy.

"See? Why can't you be as nice as Ivy is, Nat?" Rachel asked.

Behind her, Oscar was defending himself from a sword, his staff flashing back and forth like a sword fight. Rachel just rolled her eyes at her girlfriends.

"Because I'm not that nice."

"Rude," Rachel said with a small smirk.

Ivy laughed and leaned down closer to Natalie, burying her face in her girlfriend's hair.

"Yes, that's what I am," Natalie replied with a small smirk on her face.

Oscar finally slammed his staff against the other man's face, causing a buzzer to sound.

Rachel glanced over her shoulder, raising an eyebrow.

"Took you long enough," Rachel said.

The team leader was leaning over, his hands on his knees as he panted. He glared at Rachel.

"Seriously?! I was _calling for help_!" he cried.

"I knew that you had it under control," Rachel said with a wave of the hand, rolling her eyes and turning back to her girlfriends.

She was about to continue speaking, but a loud voice cut her off immediately.

"And team ORIN has taken victory over team BRBN!" Nora cried loudly. "A complete knockout of all four without any members of team ORIN getting their Auras broken! This proves once and for all just how superior Beacon Academy is to-"

Jaune put a hand over Nora's mouth.

"No other academy because they are all special in their own ways and cannot be compared."

Nora grumbled against the hand, a small pout on her face. She shoved his hand off of her mouth and leaned closer to the microphone.

"Anyways, team ORIN won round one and will be moving onto the doubles round with two of their members! Oh, I just wonder who they're going to chose! All of their members are so skilled and impressive!"

Nora fell silent as she saw team ORIN walking toward the exit, Ivy still clinging onto Natalie's back, her legs wrapped around her waist.

"Who are we sending onto the doubles round?" Ivy asked idly, trying to seem as if she was barely paying attention while also keeping her eyes focused. She decided to let her gaze land on Natalie's head, running one hand through her hair. She always found it easier to keep her gaze focused when she was staring at someone she loved.

"Well, I think we should send Natalie and me on," Rachel said, staring at the other members of her team.

They had planned this discussion verbatim, wanting it to be transferred over the microphones.

"I want to go on!" Ivy said, trying to make her voice sound whiny.

Her teammates exchanges suffering gazes.

"Ives, maybe you aren't the best choice for this...," Rachel set one hand on her girlfriend's calf.

Ivy gave her a pouting look, and Rachel sighed.

"You know I can't say no when you look at me like that!"

Ivy just pouted down at her.

"Fine! Fine, you can have one of our spots," Rachel said with a sigh.

Natalie forced herself to roll her eyes as they stepped out of the arena.

When they had taken off the microphones and made sure they were turned off, the four grinned at one another.

"Ives, you did **amazing**!" Natalie said, running forward to grab her girlfriend in a tight hug and wrapping her wings around her. Before she could wrap the two of them together with her wings, Natalie hesitated and grabbed Rachel and Oscar, pulling them both into the hug with herself and Ivy. "You told me **exactly** where they were, what they were doing... is that how you see all the time?!"

Ivy grinned and nodded.

"That's _awesome_!" Rachel cheered. "I'm so sorry that we had to act like-"

"Did you know," Ivy smirked and gave Rachel a quick wink, "that surprise can cause heart attacks?"

Rachel grinned and nodded.

"You're right! You're going to be not just a **heart** attack, but a _full body_ attack!"

"That was bad, Rach," Oscar muttered.

Natalie found herself agreeing, and Rachel stared up at her in horror.

"You're supposed to support me! You're my girlfriend!" Rachel cried.

"What? Can't hear you down there," Natalie said.

"Don't make me come up there!" Rachel threatened, seeming as if she was about to climb up her girlfriend's waist and start attacking her.

Natalie just grinned and leaned down, giving her a quick kiss.

"Hey, you did good too, by the way. Especially in the water," the bat faunus said.

"You know it!" Rachel cheered.

"But seriously, who are we sending on with Ivy?" Oscar asked.

A beat of silence passed before Natalie and Rachel stared at each other, the silent fight reigning between them.

Oscar and Ivy shared a look before they both stepped back, deciding to let the other two fight it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a question: Who all do you think these teams are going to be sending into the doubles round?


	20. Team DRGN VS Team ATLS

Alea wasn't scared. In fact, she was far from it. She took a moment to wonder, as she walked onto the platform, what the opposite of scared was. She knew that Ivy would have dozens upon dozens of words to offer her, and Alea could even hear her best friend's voice in her head saying them.

_Elated? Excited? Enthusiastic? E-_

Alea broke into a grin. Why did everything good start with an E?

Before she could ponder that train of thought any further, she was distracted by a hand on her shoulder.

"You guys ready?" Lexey asked, giving her a small smile.

"Oh please, I was born ready!" Terresa said with that pompous smirk of hers.

"Born ready?" Stacey scoffed. "I still don't think you're ready now."

"I thought you were supposed to love me," Terresa replied.

"I do, but I'm also a realist."

"No, I'm the realist," Terresa pointed at herself, "Lexey's the optimist, and you're the pessimist, Stac."

"What am I, then?" Alea asked.

Her girlfriends all glanced at one another before staring at her.

"You're... you're the puppy," Terresa said.

Alea threw her hands up in the air with a frustrated groan.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?!"

"Because you have a puppy-like face, babe," Lexey said. "And that grin? Seriously, you might as well start panting."

"Mrs. Belladonna-Schnee would say that's racist," Alea replied, arms crossed with a small pout on her face.

"And I would say that we should stop talking about this because everyone in the stadium can hear us," Stacey cut in, rolling her eyes sufferingly at her girlfriends.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Lexey said, blushing just slightly.

Alea smiled at the action, bumping her shoulder against Lexey.

"You think **I'm** the cute one? Have you seen yourself, Lex?" Alea asked.

"I said let's change the subject, not keep flirting," Stacey hissed.

"But... I'm the team leader. Right? Guys, I thought I was the team leader, not Stacey," Alea said, glancing at Terresa and Lexey with a small smile on her face.

"Yeah, yeah, save it for the match," Stacey said with an eye roll.

Alea huffed and rolled her eyes, but there was a small smirk on her lips.

"Are you ready to **rumble**?!" Nora cried, causing lots of cheers to erupt from the audience as they listened. Nora was a surprisingly popular announcer, considering her perpetual excitement for the sport. "On the left, we have team ATLS!" she drew out the name dramatically. "Consisting of Lexey Lan, Stacey Seneca, Terresa Terra, and team leader... Alea Ajax!"

When Nora said Alea's name, whatever she had been about to continue with was drowned out. The cheering for Alea was deafening and rather awkward for the team leader, who glanced up at the stands with a small smirk, waving at the stadium.

"Hey!" Alea called into her microphone nervously. It was carried out through the speakers as a seductive purr, which caused many people, men and women alike, to swoon, especially their classmates.

There were several people from other schools that were suddenly paying attention, her voice alone enough to peak their interest.

Nora tried to regain control.

"Yes, yes, we all know that Alea's super popular, a heart breaker, a real la-"

Jaune slapped a hand over Nora's mouth to silence her.

"A... a, uh... law abiding citizen! Yeah! Alea's a law abiding citizen!"

Nora shook her head and rolled her eyes as she got the microphone back.

"And on the right we have team," the shuffling of papers was carried over the microphone, "DRGN, consisting of Nathanial Green, Georgia Azula, Richardo Red, and team leader Daniella Brown!"

Nora grinned at the cheering, though it was drastically quieter than it had been for Alea or her team.

"We're in for a real show today, folks! I for one can't **wait** to see what the arena will be!"

As she spoke, the arena options started to scroll at top speed, moving so quickly that nobody could tell which was which. Slowly, it started to decrease in speed before it latched onto the final option, which created a loud **ding ding ding**! to signify the choice had been made.

"Air? How the-" there was a bleep over the speaker system "-are they supposed to fight in the air? They don't have wings, so-"

Nora cut herself off, a rare occurrence for the loudmouth, and watched with a mixture of excitement and awe as she platform around them started to change. Unlike in the battle that team ORIN had fought, the middle of the platform shifted underneath them, and the eight were forced to hop onto sections of it that **didn't** disappear at random. When the arena had finally stopped its shifting, they were left with a horrifying sight.

There were dozens upon dozens of stone pedestals, all varying sizes between a foot to eight feet in diameter, that were scattered across the battlefield at different heights. The distance between them was also varying, some close enough that a person could conceivably run between them, but others were so far away that even Alea wasn't sure if she could make the jump between them. Beneath the entire battle field was a series of nets, which Alea assumed served the purpose of catching them if they fell. Alea was grateful for it, whether or not it would catch her teammates or her enemies.

"I've just been informed that, in addition to a broken Aura, a competitor can be eliminated from the competition by touching the safety net underneath," Nora called. "The battle will commence in three, two... one!"

Alea whipped her weapon forward, in rifle form, and shot at the closet enemy.

Her target, Daniella, leapt into the air, clearing Alea's shots, and hovered. The wind around her bent to her will, creating a vortex that swirled around her and kept her airborne.

Alea shot again, but the bullets were stopped by walls of air that kept the other team leader from getting hit.

Meanwhile, Stacey had already slipped into her invisible state, leaping across pedestals like they were nothing, her training in acrobatics making this battlefield seem like child's play. She closed the distance between herself and her competitors, who were still trying to figure out where she had gone, and swung her first swaton at their chest, bringing her foot up and hitting them in the gut with it.

Stacey smirked as the opponent was sent flying off of the pedestal backwards. Stacey had already turned to her other enemies, finding that they were all watching where their friend had been with confusion and disbelief, clearly wondering what had sent him flying down toward the nets.

She was about to jump to the next pedestal and attack another enemy, but she was shocked still when she heard a loud **roar** that echoed through the entirety of the stadium.

The enemy she had knocked down, Nathanial, let out a roar, the sound pushing out of his mouth with such force that he was halted in midair, even starting to rise up away from the nets.

He held up one hand, and he felt a hand grab his own and lift him up with ease. He gave his team leader a grin before he turned back to the pedestal he had been standing on. He took a deep breath before letting out another roar, the sound shooting toward Stacey.

Stacey was forced out of her confused daze and she leapt to the side to avoid the attack. Her scramble to survive had caused her not to judge her jump very clearly, and her front struck a stone pedestal. Stacey wrapped her legs around it before reaching up with her arms and scrambling up the side to avoid falling into the net.

At the same time as Stacey's attack, Lexey had turned her semblance on, and her eyes had shifted to pitch black. She pulled her weapons forward and her gaze darted across the arena, choosing her course of action instantaneously. With her semblance on, Lexey was able to be more decisive and act with far more speed than she usually was, considering she typically had a problem with confidence.

Lexey leapt from the original pedestal, sending herself flying several feet to the right and arching up a bit. She landed with ease on the next pedestal, the diameter of the stone beneath her feet was so small that she barely had room to stand on it, but that didn't stop her in the slightest. She leapt to the next one, this one longer than the last, and raced down the few feet before taking a flying jump. This time, she landed beside one of their enemies, her chakram buzzing with electricity as it slammed against his arm.

Richardo groaned at the electricity that shot through his body, but he was glad that he had been able to throw up his arm to block Lexey from hitting his chest.

Lexey didn't hesitate, reaching her foot forward and hooking it behind her opponent's legs. She tugged forcefully, surprising Richardo as she tripped him, taking his legs out from under him. Lexey then dropped down to one knee, ramming both of her weapons down toward him.

Richardo held up his weapon, a staff, and blocked one of Lexey's weapons, but the other struck its mark.

Richadro opened his mouth, and Lexey expected a scream or grunt of pain, but she was met with flames that shot from his mouth.

Lexey ducked, the edge of her hair being slightly singed, and she brought her knee up, hitting him in the gut.

He sat up some, despite the strain, and tried to hit her in the face with his flames. Lexey's hand shot out and shoved his jaw shut, causing him to strain harder against her.

Meanwhile, Terresa reached her hands out, eyes glowing golden, and she shifted the pedestal underneath their fourth enemy's feet, causing Georgia to curse and stumble as the stone started to melt away beneath her.

Georgia threw herself toward the pedestal closest to her, hands glowing yellow as they latched onto the pedestal, digging into the stone and pressing past it. Terresa had no idea how the other girl was able to do that with her hands, but she focused on trying to get the other woman to fall down to the net. Terresa chased Georgia from pedestal to pedestal in an attempt to catch her, but it seemed that her enemy was always one set ahead of her.

Alea felt a gust of wind slam against her, and she was thrown back, careening down toward the nets. She spun in the air, changing her rifle into sword form and slamming it against the pedestal she fell beside, digging it into the stone and grinding to a halt. She looked down, seeing that her feet were hovering mere inches above the net. She rolled her eyes before she tugged on her sword, pulling herself up with her biceps until her head popped over the end of the broad sword, peeking over to see if her enemies were still watching her.

Alea could immediately tell that they thought she had fallen into the net.

She smirked and pulled herself further onto her sword, climbing up until she stood on top of its handle, silently glad that she had such an obnoxiously large weapon that could hold her weight.

"Need a hand?" Stacey asked from above Alea's head. The team leader glanced up, finding that she couldn't see her girlfriend.

"Nah, I'm good. Why don't you go take out one of them for me?" Alea asked, sending a wink in the general direction of where she expected her girlfriend to be.

Alea then bent her knees before jumping onto the pillar beside her, a good five feet away. She wrapped her legs around it before she leaned back, holding herself steady with her legs and core, to wrench her sword out of the other pedestal. Alea then hurriedly climbed up the pillar until she stood on top, triumphantly holding her weapon up in front of her.

She saw the that other team leader, Daniella, gave her a confused look, and Alea sent a smirk and a wink her way.

"You didn't think you could get rid of me that easy, did ya?"

There was loud, deafening cheering as Alea made her reappearance, but the team leader didn't seem to notice. Alea took off at a sprint, racing forward on the small pillar she stood on until she reached the edge of it, her foot planting on the very end before she leapt into the air.

She hit a wall of air in front of her, and Alea smirked. Just as she had expected. She latched onto the wall of air and held on tight, scrambling up the invisible wall as if it was no different from the pedestal from earlier. Alea reached the top, her fingers gripping it securely, and vaulted over, landing on the pillar she had been originally aiming for.

While Daniella was watching Alea with clear disbelief, Alea took off at a run, leaping between the pillars with a sort of bounding gate to her steps as she neared where Daniella hovered.

Meanwhile, Stacey smirked at her team leader's quick thinking, moving silently and invisibly toward the nearest enemy she could find, which happened to be Nathanial.

Once Daniella had caught him, he had then floated back to a pillar a little ways away from Stacey, landing on his feet and preparing to send a sneak attack at Terresa, who was still trying to get Georgia to fall down to the nets.

Stacey glared at the action, her protective nature flaring up as she performed a flip, landing on the next pillar on her hands and feet silently. She was now on the pedestal next to him, and she took a moment to get ready, crouching low and pulling both of her swatons and extending them soundlessly.

When Nathanial opened his mouth to scream, Stacey leapt through the air, landing feet first and slamming against his chest. As he tumbled backward in shock, Stacey flipped backward, landing delicately on her feet. She shot forward, clearing the foot of distance between them nearly instantaneously. She raised her swatons and jabbed both of them into him, one in his leg and the other in his chest.

Nathanial stumbled at the invisible attack, trying to spot where Stacey was, but she knew that it would be to no avail. She continued her assault mercilessly, kicking him in the knee before using the momentum to spin in a tight circle, slamming both of her swatons against him and sending him tumbling back.

Stacey smirked as his foot dangled dangerously over the edge.

"He-"

Before he could finish his cry for help, Stacey darted forward and slammed her shoulder against him.

He fell backward, spinning in midair and letting out a roar, which caused him to hover in mid air before he shot back up, landing on another pillar.

She needed to find a way to keep him from catching himself with his screams **before** she knocked him down...

She gracefully darted across the pillars between them, a plan formulating in her head.

Meanwhile, Alea was focused on the other team leader, making sure that Daniella wouldn't be able to save any of her teammates once they were knocked off their pillars. Maybe Alea could even break her Aura or knock her down to take out an enemy!

She dashed forward and took a flying leap into the air.

A gust of wind met her, this time not a wall of air, but instead just a hurricane-level slap of wind.

Alea fell backward onto the pillar, digging her sword into the stone and holding her place as well as she could as the winds raged on around her.

Alea gritted her teeth, letting her eyes fall shut as she let her semblance flair. Her eyes shot back open, this time seeming to blaze blue.

Suddenly, the wind started to slow as the other team leader stared at Alea. Despite hovering a great deal above her, she seemed to be looking up at Alea.

Alea stood slowly, trying to look as demanding and intimidating as she possibly could as she stared the other girl in the eyes.

Alea raised her rifle and shot, hitting the other girl in the chest.

Daniella seemed to finally snap out of it as the second bullet struck home. She gasped in shock and pain, wondering how Alea had been able to do... **whatever** she had done.

Alea had taken full advantage of her distraction and was leaping between the pillars until she reached the one underneath the other team leader.

Alea flared her semblance even more until she had it as strong as it could go.

Daniella faltered again as Alea crouched, leaping into the air with strength. Alea grabbed onto her leg, and Daniella was finally able to focus on the current situation. She let out a cry of shock, shaking her leg in an attempt to get Alea off of her.

Alea didn't seem to care, bringing her sword up and slamming it against the other girl's chest.

Meanwhile, Stacey closed the distance between herself and her prey, reaching her hand down as she ran and ripping a bit of fabric off her shirt while balling it up.

She swung her swaton with one hand, slamming it against her enemy and hitting him in the gut. As he stumbled back on the thin pillar, foot already hitting the edge of the island.

Stacey scrambled forward and grabbed his face as his mouth opened to scream. Stacey shoved her hand forward and covered his mouth, stuffing the bit of ripped fabric from her shirt into his mouth.

His eyes widened in shock, staring down at the cloth that was invisible to his eyes, and Stacey smirked. She shoved him off the pillar and watched with bated breath as he tumbled down. The cloth became visible as soon as it left contact with her hand, and he scrambled to pull it out of his mouth, but Stacey had stuffed it all the way back into his throat, and just as he got it out of his mouth, his back struck the net.

Stacey let out a triumphant cheer, though a quiet one, as she was aware that nobody could see her, as the buzzer went off.

"And it seems that Nathanial has been eliminated by an invisible Stacey Seneca! What a twist!" Nora cried in excitement, hovering over the microphone with her chair long forgotten behind her.

Alea would have given a cheer for her girlfriend, but she was currently grappling with her fellow team leader, slamming her sword against her a myriad of times as Alea continued to clutch her, making sure that the other girl couldn't send her flying to the ground.

Alea was currently holding Daniella around the waist with one arm while she used her other arm to attack.

Alea brought one knee up, slamming it against the other girl's back and making her grunt, hunching over.

Alea turned her sword into a rifle and shot at the other girl with it.

Suddenly, a buzzer went off, and Alea saw her fellow team leader's Aura break.

They both tumbled toward the net, and Alea scrambled, transforming her weapon back into a sword and reaching out her arm to slam it against the nearest pillar, slowing her descent once more until she hovered in the air, her sword keeping her from falling. Her other arm still clutched Daniella in it, and Alea glanced down at her with a slightly concerned look.

"You alright?" she asked.

Daniella groaned.

"Why are you still holding me up?" she asked, voice clearly bitter from Alea practically crawling over her like a deranged rat and then slamming her weapon against her repeatedly.

Alea honestly couldn't blame her.

"Because that looked like a long fall and I didn't want you to get hurt."

Alea heard a grunt from Lexey above her, and her gaze shot up with concern.

"Looks like I gotta go, but be careful, don't want you getting hurt," Alea said, giving Daniella a wink before she gently set her down onto the net, which was only a few feet below where Alea hung.

Alea didn't notice Daniella blush, her gaze focused on the pillars above her. Alea took a second to think, looking around for other pillars to leverage. When she didn't find any, she groaned and pulled herself back up so that she stood on the sword. She leapt into the air, her fingers finding purchase on the stone before she scrambled up, leaving her sword behind. It was well out of reach anyways.

As soon as she was on the pillar, she was met with a line of fire, which she assumed was from Richardo.

Alea dove to the side, but the fire singed her greatly and cut down her Aura more than she had expected. Despite that, she didn't seem to care, clearly used to getting set on fire after knowing Natalie for a while. That girl was almost constantly setting stuff on fire, whether it be because of embarrassment or just during their random sparring sessions.

Lexey growled, her semblance almost slipping from her grasp as anger and fear pushed against it. He'd hit Alea. He'd **hurt** Alea. Lexey raced forward and grabbed her enemy around the waist, tackling him off the pillar and the two fell toward the net. He let out a cry of shock, squirming and trying to get a grasp on a pillar. Lexey slapped his hands away, and a moment later the two of them hit the net.

Two buzzers sounded.

"Oh! And it looks like Lexey just sacrificed herself to take out Richardo from team DRGN! That was a bold move," Nora grinned in excitement as she spoke, "but it certainly looks like it will work out, considering team ATLS still has three members left!"

Terresa finally had enough, glancing at where Alea stood before growling.

"STAC! I need to know where you are, hon!" she called.

Stacey immediately appeared on a nearby pillar, and Terresa smirked.

"You two ready to get this over with?" Terresa asked smugly.

Alea smirked back at her.

"Don't push yourself, but... _yes_."

Terresa laughed and held her hands up. Suddenly, all of the pillars around them started to shake and quake, their stones grinding against one another and creating a horrendous sound that grated against people's ears.

All of the pillars that were not beneath Terresa, Stacey, and Alea finally broke, leaving the final enemy, Georgia, to go fall down to the net.

Alea grinned in excitement as the buzzer went off, though it looked like a smirk.

"HA! Take that!" Terresa called. "Impenetrable skin can't save ya now, can it?!"

"Babe, seriously, we talked about the bragging," Stacey said.

"Right! Lex, you alright?" Terresa called.

Lexey grumbled and crawled across the net until she neared Alea, climbing up the pillar and grabbing the sword for her.

Alea reached down and pulled her up, giving Lexey a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Lexey said, leaning against Alea and passing the sword over to her.

"Incredible!" Nora called. "In a surprising twist, Terresa Terra used her semblance to destroy almost every pillar in the game!"

Terresa smirked as the platform began to reappear. Alea stepped over and pulled Lexey behind her by their connected hands.

She went to shake hands with their adversaries, grinning at Daniella.

"I didn't hurt you too bad, did I?" Alea asked.

The other team leader looked Alea up and down incredibly fast, smirking.

"No _too_ bad. Might have to make it up to me."

Lexey glared at her, pulling closer to Alea possessively.

"Yeah! Sure, I guess! Maybe we can have a sparring session sometime!" Alea said, trying to be friendly, but it came across as impossibly flirtatious.

"Babe, she's flirting with you," Stacey said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh! Sorry," Alea offered a smirk to the other girl, "I'm actually taken, but if you still wanna hang out, I'm up for it."

Daniella rolled her eyes and went back to her team, limping just slightly, leaving Alea watching her with a small, sad expression.

Her girlfriends were quick to congratulate her on how well she'd done and distract her. That was more than enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone have any platform ideas for the doubles rounds? I have a few, but by now you all know that I'm open to suggestions and requests! I mean, this fic was originally founded because I wanted a very specific story to be told for team RWBY, and I strive to achieve the perfect story for readers (even though I know that's impossible :P)
> 
> Also: Am I the only one that thinks it's insane that there were only three rounds in the tournament??? I mean... the years were mixed, as shown by Mercury fighting team CFVY and then Yang, and there were, presumably, a BUNCH of teams in FOUR SEPARATE YEARS, so like... How would this only be three rounds????? This means that I might just have to spice it up a bit and make a new round or two of my own :P
> 
> One more thing: Am I proud of what I did for the team they were fighting by making them team DRGN (dragon) and giving them dragon powers? Yes.


	21. The Threat

It wasn't that Alea was mad. Well... not _exactly_. She was slightly... slightly perturbed, she supposed. Ivy would probably have dozens of words for it.

But, **apparently** , Ivy wasn't good enough to do _anything_ , according to her teammates.

Alea wasn't upset. She was... frustrated. Perhaps tiffed. This explained why she could be seen at the moment having a peaceful conversation with team ORIN.

"What's your problem?!" Alea snapped, glaring at Ivy's teammates.

Rachel jumped.

"What are... what are we talking about?" Rachel asked hesitantly, her gaze darting over to Ivy for a moment, frowning in confusion.

"Why are you making Ivy out to be some idiot?!" Alea growled. She didn't seem to realize it, but her semblance was flared to the max, and the members of team ORIN were trying not to look at her (with the obvious exclusion of Ivy).

"W-we're not," Natalie said, her wings folded closer to her as she looked down at the ground, her gaze darting up to Alea for a moment before she dragged them away. But it wasn't long before her eyes were inevitably drawn back up to Alea.

"We're just... just trying to... do you mind not flaring your semblance?" Rachel asked quietly, trying her hardest not to fold in on herself self consciously. She felt like she was a small child being both yelled at and chastised at the same time. She disliked the feeling greatly.

Alea glared down at Rachel, her semblance seeming to just flare more.

"Just tell me why you did it!" she hissed.

"We wanted to trick them!" Rachel said quickly, but her voice was quiet and anxious, looking down at the ground. Her eyes finally met Alea's, but then she looked down again, her hands folding in front of her.

"So you decided to make her look like an idiot?!" Alea hissed. She had barely raised her voice in the slightest, but her tone was deadly sharp, as if she was about to slice them into pieces with her words.

"She's just playing a part," Oscar said, trying to soothe Alea.

Alea didn't care for that approach in the slightest.

"Why did you make _her_ the idiot? Do you know what you've done?!" she growled, her voice somehow even more intimidating now that it was quieter.

"W-what are you talking about?" Natalie asked hesitantly.

"She's already hardly ever understood in the first place!" Alea threw her hands up in the air. "Now you're making it **worse**?! How in the _world_ is that good for her?!"

"T-that's not what we meant by all of this. And we asked her if it was alright-"

Alea cut Rachel off.

"You're her girlfriend! Of course she's going to say yes to you, because she loves you! But you went and took her love for you **personal advantage** in a tournament!"

Oscar, Natalie, and Rachel glanced to the side at Alea's girlfriends, hoping they would help her, but they seemed either uninterested (Stacey), like they agreed with Alea (Lexey), or like they just thought the whole scene was great to watch (Terresa, who looked a little bit like she had drool on her chin, but none of them got a good look at her).

"You _know_ how hard it is for her to communicate, but you did it anyways! You should be **ashamed** of your-"

Alea slowly trailed off when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She looked down at Ivy, her demeanor changing instantly. Her semblance was still flared, but her eyes became caring and gentle as she looked down at her friend.

"Hey, Ives. Are you alright? Would you rather wait outside?" Alea whispered, reaching one hand over to rub up and down Ivy's back. "I know you don't like yelling because of your semblance, so how about you go outside and maybe go check on team RWBY, make sure they're handling their children alright?"

Ivy smiled with her gaze focused on Alea, shaking her head.

"No, I'm alright, Lea. I think you're overreacting."

Alea hesitated, her hand resting on Ivy more pointedly now, pulling her closer.

"Are you sure, Ives? I know that you don't like it when...," Alea slowly shut her mouth, Ivy's thoughts and feelings extending to her.

A mixture of words and emotions met her.

Ivy sent her a small sense of fondness. _Thank you_. A dash of humor. _Calm down, scaring them_.

Alea rolled her eyes.

"Maybe they _deserve_ to be scared, Ives."

 _I told them it was alright_. Sincerity radiated from Ivy to Alea.

"But-"

"I can take care of myself," Ivy said.

"So can I, but I'm not good at that," Alea said.

Ivy started to giggle.

"Yes, but did you know that dogs have been selectively bred to be aesthetically pleasing to humans?" Ivy asked.

"Are you calling me a puppy?!" Alea hissed, a small smile on her lips.

"Did you know that a linguist is a person who studies languages?"

"Yes, yes, I know your language, Ives, of course I _understood_ what you said, I just couldn't **believe** it!" Alea replied playfully, not noticing as her semblance slowly started to stop flaring, coming closer to a passive level the longer they spoke.

"You _are_ a puppy," Ivy whispered.

"So are you! And puppies need to be protected," Alea replied softly.

Ivy reached her hand out and pulled Alea closer, looking up at her with a small smile on her face.

"I can take care of myself, but I'm glad you're willing to protect me."

Alea sighed and leaned down closer, setting their foreheads against one another.

"Just let me know if I need to beat one of them up for you," Alea whispered. "I'll do it."

"I know you will."

"I'll even give one of my girls a stern talking to if they're mean to you."

Alea's teammates let out sounds of protest, and Alea shot them a small smirk and a wink, which caused them to fall silent.

"I know."

Alea let out a sigh and pulled back, turning to face the rest of Ivy's team.

"You better not hurt her, because we've sparred against each other before, and you know what I'll do if any of you lay a finger on her," Alea said.

She walked out of the room, her arm looped around Ivy's shoulders. Her teammates started to follow her out, but not before having a little fun with team ORIN.

"She's not kidding, ya know," Terresa said.

"She's really protective when she realizes there's something to protect you from," Lexey said with a small smirk.

"Nobody will find your bodies if you mess with Ivy," Stacey said, voice monotone.

Lexey giggled and grabbed Stacey's hand, dragging her out of the room behind their teammates and Ivy, who was now resting her head against Alea's shoulder with a distracted smile on her face.

Lexey poked her head back into the room.

"Oh, right, and breaking up with Ivy counts as hurting her, so you two are pretty much either stuck with her for life, or your life is over. Hope you're cool with that!"

Terresa laughed and threw her arm around Lexey as they hurried to catch up.

Natalie and Rachel shared a look, a sort of fear in their eyes.

"I... didn't know she could be that scary," Natalie said slowly.

"Dust, Nat!" Rachel threw up her hands as she spoke. "I didn't know she could **be** scary!"

She could still remember the time Alea's Aura had broken during last week's spar, and she'd spent the entire time with a goofy grin on her face while she told everyone how much she liked them.

That didn't detract from the effectiveness of her threats though, that's for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, just wanted to mention, it seems like there's more people that are caught up and reading along with what I'm writing lately, and it's really cool! Just wanted to say thanks for sticking with me through over 550,000 words and still wanting more!
> 
> One last thing: You guys want me to do team SSSN without Sun and new team leader or nah?


	22. Double Whammy

"Why exactly do **we** have to fight twice in one day? Why not some other team?" Natalie asked, her arms crossed as she leaned back against the wall, one foot lifted up so that she could rest it against the wall as well.

Ivy set a hand on her arm idly, not looking at her but clearly focused on her girlfriend.

"I thought you liked fighting, Nat," Rachel said, rolling her eyes. She was still clearly frustrated that she hadn't been chosen to go onto round two.

They'd decided to send on Ivy and Natalie, and the conversation had been a harsh one.

_/_

_"We all know that we're sending on Ivy," Oscar said, "but which of you two," he gestured at Natalie and Rachel, "is going with her?"_

_Oscar had decided that he didn't want to go onto the doubles round with Ivy a few days ago when Whitley had come into town, choosing instead to spend the time with his boyfriend when he had the chance._

_"I am," Natalie and Rachel said as one._

_They glanced at each other, both glaring._

_"Why you?" Rachel asked, sounding slightly disbelieving. "I'm the most well rounded of the bunch!"_

_"You?! Well rounded?! What would you do if we had the air arena?! I can **actually** fly!" Natalie growled._

_"Yeah, but I can have reserves of **anything** , Nat! And they're still really full! I prepared for this!"_

_"Yeah, so did I!" Natalie growled. "My fire reserves are at full level! And besides, this is all **really** about getting Ivy onto the singles round, isn't it?" Natalie asked._

_Rachel had to relent, nodding._

_"Well, that means that I should go with her! We're the better team!" Natalie cried, throwing up her hands._

_Ivy had decided to sit this conversation out, literally, and was laying on a bench in a few feet away. Nobody could tell if she was paying attention or not. They supposed it didn't matter if she was or wasn't, really._

_"What?! you do **not**!" Rachel said, clearly defensive now, her arms crossed. She glanced at Ivy nervously, kicking at the ground. It looked irritated, but she only did that when she was anxious. "This is **not** a couple, Nat!"_

_"That's not how I meant it, Rach! You know that!" Natalie said, rolling her eyes in a suffering manner as she watched her tiny girlfriend glaring up at her. Natalie took a deep breath to calm herself, running a hand through her hair and trying to put on a more calming expression. She reached out and set her other hand on Rachel's shoulder. "I meant that we're supposed to be keeping Ivy's powers and all a secret, and that's easier if I'm fighting with her."_

_"How so?" Rachel asked. She was still slightly defensive, but she had calmed down, looking up at Natalie with a bit of confusion in her gaze._

_"Well, the best way for Ivy to work with someone is if she can warn them about stuff, right?" Natalie asked._

_Rachel nodded, holding in an eye roll because she **knew** that wouldn't be productive for this conservation._

_"And to do that, she has to be touching them, right?"_

_Rachel nodded once more._

_"So tell me how you're supposed to be touching her the entire match without it looking suspicious," Natalie said, raising an eyebrow._

_Rachel opened her mouth, but she hesitated._

_"Exactly! But if she's on my back while I'm flying, it can look like I'm just keeping her out of harms way! Like this morning!" Natalie said. She pulled Rachel closer, and the smaller girl allowed herself to be led over to the bat faunus, setting her head on her chest._

_"Fine," Rachel muttered, her arms crossed. "But you **owe** me one, Nat."_

_"What do you want?" Natalie asked sufferingly, rolling her eyes. But there was a small smile on her face as she subconsciously reached her wings closer around the other girl, encasing them both between them._

_"I guess you'll just have to wait and see what I ask for," Rachel said, her voice teasing as she leaned closer to Natalie._

_"Maybe it isn't worth it...," Natalie said slowly._

_Rachel leaned up as far as she could on her toes before she reached up and grabbed Natalie around the neck, tugging her down enough so that she could be close to her lips. Natalie held in a laugh at the height difference._

_"Too late, Nat."_

_She connected their lips gently, pulling her closer._

_/_

"Don't get that started again, we worked hard enough to get over this the first time," Natalie said with an eye roll.

Rachel huffed, but she gave Natalie a small smile.

"But seriously, why do we have to go twice?" Natalie asked with a small groan.

"Because none of our Auras broke and none of us were eliminated. There were only two teams that did that," Oscar replied.

Natalie let out a sigh, shaking her head.

"If I'd known that we'd have to go twice, I might have 'accidentally' shot Rachel a few times."

Rachel smacked her on the arms, rolling her eyes.

"Bold of you to assume I wouldn't have taken you out first."

"I had Ivy on my back, Rach. You can't take out the secret weapon," Natalie replied with a smug look.

"Did you know that when you argue you're annoying?" Ivy asked, rolling her eyes at the pair.

Rachel and Natalie shared a stunned look.

"Alea is rubbing off on you. This isn't good," Rachel said.

Ivy laughed quietly, considering for a moment.

"Did you know that the hottest chili pepper in the world is so hot it could kill you?" Ivy asked.

"And she'd back," Natalie said, giving Ivy a small smile.

The door all but slammed open, and four figures hurried inside.

Alea grinned broadly at Ivy, but to everyone else it looked like she was trying to seduce her with her eyes.

"You're going next, huh?" Stacey asked, raising an eyebrow. "Looks like it's a good thing Lexey got eliminated, or maybe we would have had to take you out before you got Ivy to the singles round."

Rachel rolled her eyes and playfully shoved the other girl.

"You're going to do great, Ives," Alea was saying, leaning over to give her friend a hug. "Even if nobody knows that you'll be the one doing it."

Ivy smirked and patted Alea on the back before pulling away.

"Thanks, Lea," she said, smirking at Natalie as she got ready to go to the fight.

"How do you want us to cheer?" Rachel asked, sending Alea a smirk. "Like this?" she cleared her throat and raised her voice several octaves when she next spoke. "'You've got this sweetie! You can do it! I believe in you!'"

Alea caught on.

"Oh! I think Nora has a bullhorn that I could borrow!"

Ivy rolled her eyes and Natalie flushed just slightly.

"Don't you dare," the bat faunus said.

"You know," Stacey's voice drawled, "if it makes her blush, that's a win. Maybe you **should** embarrass her during it."

Natalie gasped.

"Stac! I thought you and I were actually connecting!"

"That's how she connects, Nat," Terresa said with a smirk, "she makes fun of you and is mean to you. That's actually how she flirts, you know."

"No it's not," Lexey said with a scoff. "That's how she flirts with _you_ , but she's pretty obvious when she flirts with Alea or myself."

Terresa laughed.

"True. She did pretty much throw herself at Alea. She was all 'Oh, Alea, I need your help with this _math_ equation... whoops! I _accidentally_ unbuttoned my shirt four times and now it's fallen off! Maybe you can help me with that too?'"

Stacey flushed and smacked Terresa on the arm harshly.

"T-that's not how it went!" she said, her voice higher pitched than it had been.

"Wait!" Alea cried, stopping in her tracks and almost causing Lexey to bump into her. " **That's** what was happening?! Stac, I bought you shirts once because I thought that your buttons weren't working!"

Stacey flushed deeper.

"I... yeah, I remember that..."

"You were flirting?!"

"Here's a tip, baby," Lexey said with a small smile, "if you see someone leaning over a table with a shirt button undone while they're trying to get your attention, they're probably flirting with you."

"Oh, they are?" Alea asked, eyes wide. "Oh my dust, I have so many friends that I have to have serious conversations with."

There was loud laughter that echoed from the two teams.

"I keep telling you that, Al!" Lexey said, rolling her eyes.

Finally, the eight reached the opening to the stadium and looked out at the stands filled with cheering people.

Alea gave Ivy one last hug, whispering in her ear.

"Just tell me if I need to kill someone."

Ivy giggled, rolling her eyes as she took the microphone.

"I will, Lea."

Alea gave her a thumbs up and a grin before withdrawing to watch her and Natalie walk out onto the fighting platform.

Natalie and Ivy shared one glance before they slipped back into their roles.

"And remember, Ives," Natalie was whispering, but her words were loud enough to be carried by the microphone to be heard in the stands, "just stay with me, alright? I don't want you getting hurt."

"I know, I know," Ivy said, sighing and crossing her arms before looking around the stadiums.

Natalie looked at her sufferingly before turning her attention to their enemies.

"On the right we have team ORIN's Natalie and Ivy! A bold move considering Ivy herself didn't take out any members of their opposing team in the first round!" Nora's voice echoed through the stands, though she sounded a bit surprised by her second sentence. She hadn't written it herself, but had been passed a note, as if she didn't know her own students well enough. She felt offended enough to _not_ correct it by saying that she'd seen Ivy knock out _several_ different students. "And on the left we have," Nora shuffled some papers, "team HNTR's Holly and Richard!"

Natalie and Ivy shared a look for a moment before they turned their attention to the shuffling of the battlefield options.

Finally, it landed on-

Natalie smirked.

"And the side of the field will be _fire_!" Nora cheered. "While the left side will be... _forest_!"

Natalie popped her knuckles before rolling her shoulders and sending a glance toward Ivy.

"How do you feel about lava, Ives?"

Ivy shrugged, smiling distractedly.

"It's pretty."

"Sure is!" Natalie smirked smugly as she watched their opponents. "And we're going to get up close and personal."

Ivy smiled back at her, but the look faltered, eyes going wide. They shot to the other team, landing on Holly.

Ivy felt a chill run through her.

"There's something different about you, isn't there?" Ivy whispered, forgetting her acting as she watched her opponent.

Holly faltered, staring at Ivy as well.

The stadium fell silent, lost in utter confusion.

"What's yours, little lady?" Holly all but purred.

Ivy felt Natalie's hand on her shoulder and suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be playing a part.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ivy said, forcing a confused look on her face.

Nora was about to start the match after the interruption, but Holly once again forestalled it.

She held out her hand, eyes falling on Ivy.

"Care to shake before we start?"

Natalie stepped forward to do so, but Ivy grabbed her by the air.

"I think they're waiting for us to start," Ivy said, forcing a calm, collected smile. Natalie glanced at her for a short moment before she nodded, smiling as well.

"Yeah, let's just get this party started," Natalie said.

There was a buzz that signified the beginning of the match, and Natalie held out her arms behind her back.

Ivy instantly jumped on, grabbing her around the shoulders and gripping her tightly with her legs around the waist.

"Go," Ivy hissed, watching Holly as she raced toward them.

Natalie cursed and flapped her wings, taking off into the air.

Holly leapt after them, her hand just about to graze Natalie's foot, but Ivy reached and shot her with one of her rifles, causing her hand to retract quickly.

"What's going on?" Natalie muttered.

Ivy set her hand on Natalie's shoulder, careful to touch bare skin.

 _Don't let her touch you_.


	23. Icarus

Natalie forced herself not to look at Ivy as she put distance between the ground and herself.

_What? Why?_ Natalie thought.

Ivy felt the confusion radiate from her girlfriend and tightened her hold on her shoulder comfortingly.

_Just don't let her touch you, Nat._

Natalie nodded wordlessly, drawing her weapon and shooting toward the two opponents.

Holly grabbed onto Richard's hand for a moment, beginning to glow green and white.

Ivy's eyes widened for a moment before she let them fall shut.

Plan. A plan. That's what she needed.

Holly was already more powerful than she had the right to be, and Ivy had to stop her before she touched them.

_Before she touches me,_ Ivy thought. _I'm the real threat here. It's okay if she touches Natalie. I can take care of that, I'm used to **that** , but mine..._

Ivy transferred her worry over to Natalie, and her girlfriend couldn't help but look back at her nervously.

Ivy shook her head and forced Natalie to focus on the matter at hand.

Holly was smirking, prowling beneath them as Natalie tried to shoot her.

Holly was able to avoid the bullets, mostly because Ivy was distracted and wasn't informing Natalie of exactly where their opponent was going to turn.

"Hiding up there scared?" Holly called. Her eyes narrowed, gaze landing on Ivy after a moment. "I **really am** curious to know what secrets you're hiding up there."

Ivy tried to ignore the fear that coursed through her at the words. Holly was super powered up, and Ivy was worried about what she'd be able to do with Richard's semblance.

Because that's what she did! Ivy had felt it the moment she'd focused on the other girl. That was Holly's semblance. She didn't exactly have one of her own, but she could have however many she wanted. Ivy knew that the process wasn't permanent, but it would definitely last until the end of this fight. The moment she touched Ivy, it was over.

Ivy loved Natalie (with all her heart, she really did), but the bat faunus had never once been able to beat Ivy when they sparred. So if Holly was able to get her hands on Ivy and, therefore, her semblance...

They were done for. Ivy would be able to stall their defeat, but Natalie would be out of the match soon after and then Holly, with her partner's power as well as Richard's and Ivy's own, would be able to take out Ivy soon after. The only way to stop her from winning was to keep their distance.

Ivy hated to do it, to risk blowing her surprise, but she drew her guns and readied her attack.

Holly must have noticed that Ivy was planning something because her eyes narrowed and locked on Ivy.

Because of Ivy's slip right before the match, Holly wasn't fooled like everyone else. She knew that Ivy was more of a threat than she let on.

Holly was _dying_ to get her hands on Ivy's semblance, to figure out what it was and get the chance to use it for herself, see what team ORIN had been defending so vehemently.

She'd watched their fight, twice actually by recording it, and had noticed that Ivy hadn't seemed to do much... but Natalie had been inexplicably talented, more so than she usually was (yes, Holly had watched old tapes of team ORIN, because she was sure that they'd fight), and the only thing different had been that Ivy was with her. And they'd been playing up Ivy as an idiot or a dead weight, but Holly had seen through it all, having watched several old tapes of team ORIN fighting for a spot in the tournament, and Ivy was way more than they were letting on.

Holly couldn't wait to get her hands on Ivy's semblance, see what was going on in her head.

Holly laughed as she watched Natalie and Ivy flying overhead, shooting at her and her partner.

Richard glanced at Holly, confused.

"What're you waiting for, Hol?"

Holly smirked and bent her knees before leaping up, nearing Natalie and Ivy. She'd chosen Richard to come with her for this fight specifically for his leaping semblance, knowing that she'd need it because of Natalie's wings.

Ivy's eyes widened as she watched the other girl shooting toward them, and she cursed. Natalie tried to swerve out of the way, but hadn't reacted fast enough due to her shock. Ivy had to do something, but she wasn't sure if she could without...

Ivy threw caution to the wind as her plan formed, and her gaze grew determined. She took a deep breath while she turned her guns into sword form, waiting just a moment... now! Ivy saw Holly come within a centimeter of Natalie's chest, but her sword flashed out. It latched onto Holly's arm and redirected it just slightly, causing her to fly off course, narrowly missing Natalie and Ivy.

Natalie was unbalanced for a moment in the air before she started to fly backward, retreating to the fiery end of the field and letting her semblance flare inside of her.

_Now?_ Natalie asked silently.

_Anything to keep her away,_ Ivy thought back, feeling a bit desperate as she watched the other team prowl toward them.

Natalie whipped her gun out and shot at Richard and Holly, Ivy directing her bullets.

Natalie's shots hit true, but the other team was able to continue their approach toward them at top speed.

Natalie used her semblance, shooting fire down at the other team as they raced toward them, but it was hard to aim, and Ivy's semblance couldn't help Natalie. Her fire attacks were all on her. Ivy wanted nothing more than to use her weapon and use her semblance to the max by shooting at the other team and knowing where they'd be, but she knew that she couldn't, not without ruining their plan, and Oscar was so proud of his plan for Ivy. She couldn't ruin it.

Holly was halted by Natalie's attack, having to fall to the ground and roll back and forth to get herself to stop flaming.

Natalie had been focusing on Holly, and seemed to have forgotten Richard. Ivy tried to warn her, but the bat faunus was distracted. Richard leapt through the air and snatched onto Natalie, tackling her toward the ground.

Ivy sent her worry to Natalie, trying to kick Richard off of her, but Natalie sent back calm.

Natalie tried to get Richard off of her and fly back to the sky, using her semblance set him on fire. But Natalie's attempts didn't work, and she was dragged down to the ground. Ivy could see that Richard's Aura was quickly being drained by the fire from Natalie, but he didn't seem to care in the slightest, and Ivy knew why a moment before it happened. She couldn't stop it.

Holly leapt into the air, finding purchase this time and grabbing Natalie tightly. Her hand latched onto Natalie's for just a moment, and she glowed green and then pink, absorbing Natalie's semblance.

She reached out for Ivy, but Natalie reacted quickly. She smacked at Holly's hand to stop her from touching Ivy before she sent out a warning to Ivy.

Ivy tried to stop her, but Natalie didn't listen, letting her wings stop flapping and then falling down toward the ground at full speed.

Natalie angled her body to keep Ivy from hitting the ground, but she made sure that Richard did.

Natalie shoved Ivy off of her when they hit the ground, sending her off with a loud thought.

**_Run!_ **

Ivy hesitated, but she could feel Natalie's certainty, her willingness.

Ivy growled to herself, but she took off at a sprint toward the trees. Natalie smiled at her as she went before turning on her semblance at full power.

Natalie's body erupted into flames, causing Richard to scream in pain. The buzzer went off twice as Natalie and Richard both had their Auras break, but Holly survived due to getting Natalie's semblance earlier. She even absorbed a fair bit of Natalie's heat when she all but blew up.

Ivy had already made it to the forested section of the battlefield, internally screaming at having to leave Natalie behind, but it was the best decision. She knew that, but it didn't make her feel much better.

Ivy hadn't gotten a good look at the forest side of the arena, having been understandably distracted by their enemies. The forest was dense and filled with countless trees. A normal person wouldn't be able to see through it, but Ivy was able to sense the roots beneath her, the way the air twisted and turned between the trees.

Ivy distantly wondered if the cameras could see her, and she hoped not. She didn't stop her running as she kicked off her shoes, leaving them behind before she raced barefoot through the forestry.

She could sense Holly following her. Ivy's mind whirled. She still didn't have a plan.

"Where'd you go, little lady?" Holly's taunting voice echoed through the forest into Ivy's ears.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ivy called back, her eyes falling shut as she heard the sound of boots crunching grass. She knew where Holly was. Ivy smirked and slid into her typical dance, sending Oscar a mental apology, but Ivy knew he wouldn't get it.

"That partner of yours was pretty powerful. It'd be a shame if I had to burn down the whole forest to find you."

Ivy grimaced, but not just from the threat. The crowd in the stadium had picked up in noise, several wondering loudly what was going on, where Holly and Ivy had gone. It was too much... too much noise... Ivy opened her eyes to distract herself from the sound, but it was still almost too much, too overwhelming...

Ivy suddenly grinned, taking a step forward.

"You want my semblance?" Ivy cooed. She appeared in front of Holly. "Come and take it."

Ivy held out her hand invitingly. Holly hesitated for a moment, watching Ivy distrustingly.

"What kinda trick is this?"

"Trick?" Ivy laughed, her eyes growing unfocused. "It's not a trick. If you want my semblance, then you can take it."

Holly couldn't resist the temptation, and Ivy knew it.

The other girl stepped forward and latched onto Ivy's hand.

There was a beat of silence as their Auras glowed. Ivy let her eyes fall shut as she felt her semblance being replicated.

Holly's eyes widened in disbelief as Ivy's semblance raced into her body. Everything was so clear, so simple and yet so complex, so elegant yet so ugly. The grass beneath her feet gained meaning, the air tickling her skin connected her to the world. Ivy's hand in her own sent thoughts and emotion crashing into her. It was too much, and Holly let go of Ivy's hand, stumbling back. The stadium was suddenly filled with noise, and her hands shot to her ears, but she couldn't block out the noise.

Ivy watched as her opponent stumbled backward, falling to the ground. Holly didn't seem to notice.

"Too much," she breathed. "Too much!" she shouted.

Ivy knelt down beside her.

"Have you ever heard the story of Icarus?" Ivy asked quietly, sure that her voice carried to the other girl. "Icarus flew through the air on the wings his father made, the laws of gravity no longer holding him down. The joy of freedom blinded him, and even as his father warned him not to, he flew higher and higher," Ivy paused, not caring that her voice echoed throughout the entire stadium, which had fallen deathly silent. Ivy continued. "Icarus flew too close to the sun, and he got burnt."

Ivy stood up as her opponent continued to clutch her ears.

Ivy walked out of the forested section of the arena and stride over to Natalie, helping her girlfriend to her feet.

"What happened?" Natalie asked, wincing as she held her side. "I didn't hear the buzzer."

"You don't need to. She's done," Ivy said.

Holly stumbled out of the forest to the middle of the arena, eyes landing on Ivy.

"Break it," she whispered. Then, a moment later, "BREAK IT!" she screamed desperately.

Ivy didn't look at her before she pulled her guns out of their sheaths. She shot blindly, but knew that every bullet hit its mark.

A moment later, a buzzer sounded, and Ivy was the last one left standing.

Holly was panting from exhaustion, and Ivy walked back over to her, kneeling down as the arena started to gently shift back to the starting platform it had once been.

"That's what it was, little lady," Ivy whispered.

People rushed into the battlefield and took Holly, Natalie, and Richard off, leaving Ivy alone on the field.


	24. The Cold Shoulder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credit to the name of the OC goes to... Qorvid! Thanks, bud!!

Alea raced to the opening of the stadium to the arena, skidding to a stop.

Ivy was helping Natalie out, the faunus leaning against her side.

"Oh my dust! You're hurt! Let me help!" Alea cried.

Natalie smiled tiredly at the words, getting ready for help. Alea stepped forward, put one hand on Natalie-

And shoved her to the side.

As Natalie stumbled into Rachel, a look of betrayal on her face, and Alea reached down, scooping Ivy into her arms and holding her in a bridal carry.

"Are you alright?" she asked, holding Ivy in her arms gently with a look of worry.

Ivy laughed, lounging in her arms with the barest hint of a smirk on her face.

"Did you know that Icarus originated in Greek mythology? He was the son of the inventor Daedalus and his wings melted because they were made of-"

Alea had a fond smile on her face.

"Wax, yes, I know."

Ivy's eyes glowed slightly with excitement, grinning up at Alea.

"Well... let's just say that I was the sun."

Alea laughed.

"Oh my dust. She got your semblance, didn't she?" she asked.

Ivy nodded just slightly.

"Poor son of a bitch," Rachel said, shaking her head with a small smirk.

Terresa snorted while Stacey gave Rachel a small look of disgust at the foul language, but she didn't say anything about it for the time being.

"There's been _so much_ confusion from the crowds about what happened!" Alea said excitedly.

As if to punctuate her point, a woman turned the corner, holding up a microphone in her hand tightly.

Ivy's eyes grew focused, realizing she was supposed to be back to playing her part.

"Ivy! Ivy Hanson!" the woman said excitedly, her eyes darting between the student she wanted to talk to and Alea, who was still holding Ivy in her arms.

"Yes?" Ivy asked, frowning in confusion while her gaze darted to her teammates.

"Gyra Denvers, Vytal News! I'm here with Ivy Hanson, who just won the doubles round for team ORIN against team HNTR! So tell us, Ms. Hanson, how'd you do it?!"

Ivy hesitated, glancing at her teammates and then Alea.

Alea awkwardly looked down at Ivy, clearly wondering if she should put her down or not.

Ivy chuckled and swung her legs down so that she could stand on her own, but she gave her a small smile.

"How'd I do what?" Ivy asked, giving the reporter a small smile.

The reporter halted, giving Ivy a confused look.

"How did you defeat Holly on your own? Natalie had already been eliminated, and your debut in the first round was less than stellar."

Ivy giggled.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You all saw how I beat her."

Ivy glanced at Oscar, who gave her a slight not. Ivy immediately switched personas, leaning closer to the reporter. Ivy made sure that the camera could see her looming presence.

"She _begged_ for me to break her Aura. And you want to know **why**?"

Ivy reached one hand up and ghosted it just an inch from the reporter's face, almost touching her.

"Is that a question you really want to know the answer to?"

When the reporter couldn't reply, Ivy turned to the cameras.

"And as for my debut?" Ivy let out a chilling giggle before she spoke again, her voice a low whisper. "What makes you think that I didn't win that match too?"

Ivy took a step back then, turning around and striding down the hallway.

"Now she might be like a sister to me, but I would **not** want to face that woman in the next round," Alea muttered as she walked past, following Ivy.

When they were a little ways away, Ivy turned to face her teammates and friends.

"Did I do intimidating right?" she asked, tilting her head just slightly to the side. This was a bit earlier than they had meant for her to reveal that she wasn't the ditsy persona she'd been showcasing, but Oscar had given Ivy the go ahead.

There hadn't been much choice after how she'd won the last round.

"Yeah," Rachel breathed, giving Ivy a slightly dazed smile as she watched her. "Yeah, you," she cleared her throat, "you did alright. Right, Nat?"

Natalie nodded, staring at Ivy with shock.

"Scared the crap outta me!" Terresa added. "One of the only times I've ever seen you be intimidating!"

Ivy turned to face Terresa, but her gaze wasn't focused on her. A small smirk grazed her lips.

"Consider yourself lucky, my friend," Ivy breathed.

Lexey let out a cheer.

"Yeah! That's pretty good! Right, Al?!"

Alea has a smug smirk on her lips, arms crossed against her chest.

"Gotta say, I definitely prefer this to the idiot routine. Ivy's smarter than that."

"So she's closer to the crazy lunatic that's about to destroy the next person she comes against?" Stacey asked in a monotone voice, raising an eyebrow.

"Wouldn't you think so?" Ivy asked, letting out another creepy giggle.

"Alright, Ives, that's enough," Natalie said, rolling her shoulders uncomfortably.

"Is it?" Rachel asked, grinning.

"Yes," Natalie said, giving her a pointed stare.

Rachel huffed but nodded, walking over to Ivy and slipping her hand into hers.

"But she's so good at it," Rachel said, half whining and half excited.

Ivy turned to face Rachel with a tilted grin, her head slightly to the side. Her hair fell in front of her eyes.

"I am, am I?" she all but purred. "Well, that's what they _all_ say at first."

Rachel's smile broadened, her face turning a bit red.

"Oh yeah?" Rachel asked.

Ivy took a step closer to her girlfriend, ghosting one hand over her face.

Natalie stepped in before Ivy could speak, shaking her head.

"Nope! No way! This is **way** too creepy. No way. Stop it, both of you!" the bat faunus growled.

"What? Don't like mean Ivy?" Rachel asked, not looking away from her.

"No! It's creepy," Natalie said, crossing her arms and glaring down at Rachel.

"It's not... that creepy," Rachel said, still grinning at Ivy.

"Ives, seriously, you gotta stop," Natalie said.

Ivy smiled distractedly at her.

"Did you know that bees sometimes sting over bees?" Ivy asked.

Natalie let out a sigh of relief.

"Good, she's back."

Ivy giggled, making Rachel and Natalie give her a side eyed stare.

-

"And next up," Nora said loudly, an excited grin on her face, "is team SSSN vs-"

Nora hesitated, frowning.

"What? Team SSSN? That's crazy! Sun's not on that team anymore! He left to join team JNIPRS!"

Nora pushed herself to her feet, leaving the microphone in front of her as she stormed out of the room.

"What?! Nora, where are you going?!" Jaune cried.

Nora threw the door open.

"To grab Sun by his ugly tail and stop him from cheating on our team!"

"He's not dating the team!" Jaune cried.

"He's married to two members of the team!" Nora snapped.

Jaune hesitated, not use to Nora having a clever comeback, clearly.

"I'll be back in five minutes! You two can commentate until then!" Nora called over her shoulder, storming out of the room.

"Hello, my name is Lie Ren. I have become the announcer," Ren shuffled some papers. "The next battle will be between team SSSN and team PRDT."

Ren was silent for a long moment, and Jaune glanced at him.

"Ren, keep talking!" he hissed.

Ren frowned almost unnoticably.

"Why?"

-

"Oh dust," Sun cursed, setting down Aella in her stroller before he vaulted over the couch, racing out of the room.

He hurried down the hallway at top speed.

The stadium seemed exceedingly confused about Nora just leaving the microphone behind, but Sun understood exactly why she had.

Long answer: Sun had left his last team to join theirs, and Nora had grown emotionally attached to him, likely overly so due to the trauma of their many adventures, and wanted him to stay with only their team because she was worried he might leave again now that his old team was back.

Short answer: Nora was crazy and Sun had to get to her and let her know that he wasn't leaving team JNIPRS before she killed his old team.

So yeah, Sun was sprinting.

He skidded to a stop as he saw the opening to the arena, finding the old members of his team along with... someone he didn't recognize. But Sun didn't have time to worry about that, really. He had other crazy people to deal with.

"Sun!" Neptune cried excitedly.

Sun gave him a small smile, but his head was swiveling back and forth worriedly.

"Hey, Tune. Have you seen her?"

"Who?"

"Nor-"

Nora, as if responding to his summoning, burst into the hall, glaring darkly.

"So you're back? Is this even legal? You're a huntsmen **and** a teacher now," Nora said, her arms crossed as she glared at him.

"What?! No! No, I'm not joining the team again, Nora! I'm just saying hi, checking in on them, making sure that they're okay and that... you aren't going to destroy them with your hammer because you can be a **bit** over protective."

Nora raised a skeptical eyebrow, and Sun gave her the best grin that he could manage, tail wagging back and forth.

"You aren't?" she finally asked.

"Nope!" Sun said hurriedly.

Nora sighed, giving him a small smile back.

"Cool. Well, I should probably get going. My boys aren't very good at this kinda thing."

Sun snorted, nodding her head. He didn't know why she had decided it was a good idea to leave **them** in charge of announcing.

Nora turned and ran back to the announcer's box, causing Sun to sigh with relief and lean back against the wall.

Sun turned to face his old team when Neptune coughed, and Sun's eyes widened when they landed on the new leader, who was glaring darkly at him, arms crossed.

"Uh... hi! I'm Sun!" he said, holding out his hand.

"Selene."

She didn't reach for his hand, and Sun slowly let it fall, coughing awkwardly.

Selene was a small woman, not quite reaching above Sun's chest, but she had the glare and composure that made her seem several feet taller than she was. Sun was reminded slightly of Ciel, but the glare on her face was more emotion than Ciel had ever shown before Neo. She had short hair black hair, which was done up in a tight ponytail. On her back was a weapon that Sun couldn't quite place, considering most of it was obscured.

"Oh! Right! I forgot you two hadn't met," Neptune was saying, grinning at Sun. "This is Selene Aylin! She's the new leader of team SSSN! She's great!"

Sun paused for a moment, almost frowning, but he forced a smile.

"That's great, guys! It's great to see you all again!" Sun said excitedly. "And it's awesome to meet you, Selene!"

She looked Sun up and down for a moment.

"Likewise," she said slowly, though her tone implied it was anything but.

Sun rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Uh, well... we should catch up!" Sun offered.

"Yeah, but after the match. We're about to go fight, remember?" Neptune said.

"Right!" Sun said awkwardly. "Right. Afterwards. Well, I-"

Sun was cut off by Nora over the intercoms.

"Team SSSN, we're waiting!"

Sun waved goodbye as they left, wishing them good luck.

He hoped he'd get to see them afterwards.

And he also hoped that new girl wouldn't be as rude this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So like... I WOULD have shown the team SSSN fight, but rooster teeth does not have available information on their semblances (besides Sun), which is honestly just.... lazy. Like you guys over here are holding me to the standard of making new and creative semblances for the children of team RWBY... and guess what? I FREAKING AM! Like come on step it up with the tournament you guys.
> 
> Sorry, that was weighing on me, I had to type it, ignore it if you want, but... yeah that's why I didn't do a team SSSN fight in the chapter for you guys, but I guess I could probably do the doubles and/or the singles round for them, considering I'm making the new character and will have to know their semblance (*cough* because I'm not a lazy writer *cough*)


	25. Alea "Puppy" Ajax

Alea took a deep breath, bouncing on the tips of her toes excitedly.

Alea reached out her hand and set it on top of Stacey's, giving her a wide grin.

"You sure you wanna join?" Alea asked quietly, trying to make her voice as comforting as possible. "I'm sure that either Terresa or Lexey would be more than happy to go instead of you-"

"I'm fine, Al," Stacey said with an eye roll, shoving her girlfriend gently and shaking her head.

"Are you sure?" Alea asked gently, squeezing Stacey's hand in her own.

"Of course I'm sure, Al!" she said, shaking her head again. She turned to face Terresa and Lexey. "What's with girlfriends and trying to protect you from literally everything?"

"Not all girlfriends are like that! I think you should go out there and kick some butt!" Lexey said enthusiastically.

"Hmm... all butch girlfriends?" Stacey suggested.

"Stac, I'm the butch in this relationship," Terresa said, arms crossed as she looked down at her girlfriend.

"Right, right, my bad... perhaps... puppy girlfriends?" Stacey offered.

"That sounds creepy," Lexey said, rubbing at her chin slightly as she thought.

"It _does_ ," Stacey agreed. "How about... sweet girlfriends?"

"Hey!" Terresa cried.

"What? You're not sweet," Stacey said, shaking her head.

"Pfft, I know that. I wasn't talking about me, I was talking about Lexey, because she's super sweet."

"Right... hmm...," Stacey thought.

"Is this really important? I just want to make sure that you're safe!" Alea cried, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration.

"I think we still have to go with puppy," Stacey said, shaking her head.

"I guess so. She does kinda look like one, doesn't she?" Lexey said, tilting her head to the side slightly as she looked at the team leader.

Alea was taller than Stacey and Lexey, roughly Terresa's height, and had short blond hair that hung down to almost down to her chin. Said hair was a bit messy, though not from lack of Lexey trying to make it look straight, and the hair was a bit floppy, making it look slightly like fur. Her deep blue eyes were filled with confusion as she tilted her head just a little bit to the side, staring at her girlfriends with an adorable frown on her face. As her head shifted to the side, a bit of her hair fell in front of her face, covering her eyes a little. Alea got distracted and swatted at it, making the hair flop over to the side again.

"She looks like a golden retriever," Lexey said.

"Oh my dust!" Terresa cried.

" **That's** what it is!" Stacey said, eyes wide. "Oh my dust! I've been trying to figure out what kind of dog she looked like for _weeks_!"

Alea pouted, crossing her arms.

"I don't look like a puppy!"

"When you get out of the shower and you're hair is wet, you sometimes shake like a dog," Terresa said.

Stacey snorted, blushing slightly as she burst out laughing.

"She does! She really does!"

Alea brought her hand up to her hair self consciously.

"What? That's... that's not _weird_."

"Isn't it?" Lexey asked, raising an eyebrow as she watched her girlfriend run a hand through her hair, making it gently fall to the sides.

"That's... that's not too weird," Alea said again.

"What's not too weird?" Natalie asked, walking into the room and falling against the wall to lean against it.

"Alea shaking like a dog to dry her hair," Terresa said.

"That's pretty weird," Natalie said, smirking.

"You're one to talk! You sleep upside down!" Rachel said, shaking her head as she flopped onto a chair.

Natalie glared at her.

"That's **racist** and-"

"It's not racist if I've **actually** seen you sleep upside down in your bed!" Rachel cried, throwing up her arms.

Natalie blushed, and Rachel instinctively slapped her hand against the chair, smacking out the flames.

"I've never slept upside down in my bed before!" Natalie cried.

"You move when you sleep," Rachel said, rolling her eyes. "Sometimes you end up upside in the morning."

Natalie rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"Whatever," she muttered.

"We're getting off topic," Alea said. "Stac, are you s-"

"You're right! We're forgetting the important discussion!" Lexey cried. "Alea's a golden retriever."

Ivy nodded in agreement from where she stood, gazing idly into the distance.

"Yes, definitely."

Alea stared at her with a look of utter betrayal.

"You too?!"

Natalie tilted her head to the side as she squinted at Alea.

"Ya know what? I try not to compare you humans to animals because it's rude and classless, but... Alea _**really does** _look like a golden retriever. I mean," Natalie reached her hand down and played with Alea's hair for a moment, "Oh my dust it feels like fur. That's it, she's a golden retriever."

"I **know**! How does she make her hair so soft?!" Lexey cried, reaching her own hand up to play with Alea's hair as well.

"We use the same hair products, Lex!" Alea said defensively, looking highly uncomfortable as she tried to pull away from the two hands. Another one joined the mix.

"It's just naturally like this," Stacey said, shaking her head as she ran her hand down Alea's hair.

"Yeah! I-it's not that weird!" Alea said, smiling awkwardly. They saw it as a seductive smile.

"Rach, you gotta see this," Natalie said, grabbing her girlfriend by the hand and tugging her over.

As Rachel set her hand on Alea's head, the team leader looked desperately around the room for help, as if she herself couldn't say no to her friends and girlfriends, but maybe someone else could.

Her eyes fell on Terresa, who sighed, pushing herself to her feet.

"Alright, alright, make some room," Terresa said. Alea gave her a thankful smile, but Terresa just moved closer and brought her hand up to run through Alea's hair as well.

"You're all doing it wrong," Ivy said, shaking her head as she stood, pushing past the rest of them and reaching her hand up to touch the top of Alea's head.

She ran her hand back and scratched just slightly.

Alea let out a giggle, swatting at her hand.

"Hey!" she giggled again. "That tickles!"

"Oh my dust. It's just like a puppy getting pet," Stacey said, eyes wide.

Ivy laughed while Alea sighed in frustration, shaking her head and trying to dispel Ivy's hand.

"You're all so mean," she said.

"Aw, we made the puppy sad!" Lexey said, putting on a pout.

"I got it," Ivy said. Alea was about to protest, but she suddenly realized that Ivy had just had a full conversation with her friends without having to resort to any fun facts. She was getting better at communicating with people, and... Alea couldn't **stop** her from doing that now, right? So she let out a sigh as Ivy reached her hand up to Alea's head again.

Ivy scratched just slightly, and Alea let out a giggle.

"Oh my dust that's so cute," Lexey breathed.

Terresa grabbed Ivy by the shoulders.

"Show me **everything**!" Terresa cried.

Ivy laughed, shaking her head.

"I don't think Alea would like that."

Alea was about to say something in response, but a voice came over the intercoms.

"Team ATLS," a woman said, "please send your doubles pairing into the arena."

Alea sighed and gently reached up, grabbing Ivy's wrist in her hand before slowly guiding it away from her head.

"Sorry, looks like we'll have to have a rain check on you embarrassing me in front of my friends and girlfriends," Alea said.

"Promise?" Ivy asked with a small grin.

"That was **not** a promise, Ives," Alea said as she and Stacey started to walk out of the room.

Ivy stared at her.

Alea hesitated, stopping her walk as she looked down at her friend.

"Don't look at me like that."

Ivy continued to stare at her.

"You **know** I can't say no to that face," Alea whined.

"Is... is she even making a face?" Lexey whispered to Terresa, who just shrugged.

Alea sighed.

"Fine! Fine! You can do it later, but I have to go to the arena now so we don't get disqualified, so stop giving me that look!" Alea said.

Ivy grinned at her and nodded.

"Great!" Alea cried, grabbing Stacey's hand in her own before darting down the hallway toward the arena opening for competitors.

Stacey let out a sound of shock as she was all but dragged down the hall, barely keeping her feet under her as her girlfriend ran.

They skidded to a stop at the opening before sharing a glance, Alea grinning.

"Sorry I was worried," Alea muttered as she put on her microphone.

"That's alright. I know you mean well," Stacey replied, blushing slightly. She chanced a glance up at the team leader, finding that Alea was smiling down at her lovingly. Stacey's blush increased greatly, and she shot her gaze away from the other girl.

"But you're right. I shouldn't have said anything because I know that you are a very competent huntress in training... but you're also my girlfriend, which means that I worry."

Stacey knew that people were listening, knew that they were waiting for team ATLS, and she **especially** knew how embarrassing this was, but...

Stacey took a quick step forward, wrapping both of her arms behind Alea's head and pulling her down for a chaste kiss.

Alea blinked in surprise when Stacey pulled away, but smirked at her. Stacey could **tell** that underneath it was a goofy grin, and she found herself preferring that image instead.

"If I get that for saying the truth, I might just have to lie less often."

"You never lie, Al."

"Then why am I not getting kissed right now?" Alea asked, raising an eyebrow.

Stacey flushed, letting out a laugh as she playfully pushed her girlfriend away, shaking her head.

"Always the charmer," Stacey muttered.

"That's what they tell me."

"And by 'they' you mean everyone, right?"

Alea hesitated.

"Yes. Yes, I mean everyone," Alea replied, a small smirk on her face.

Stacey shook her head sufferingly, taking her girlfriend's hand in her own and starting to drag her down toward the platform.

"And finally making their entrance on your right hand side is team ATLS' doubles round partners: Stacey Seneca and team leader Alea Ajax!" Nora cried.

Once again, there were loud cheers at Alea's name, and she blushed slightly at the attention. She quickly pushed away her embarrassment, raising her hand to wave at the crowd with a broad smile. It was seen as sultry and seductive, which made many people eye Alea with wide eyes or small blushes.

"Babe, you're doing it again," Stacey said, rolling her eyes.

Alea suddenly had a goofy grin on her face, but it just looked like a wider smirk. Alea cleared her throat and, once she spoke, her voice was far lower.

"I'm well aware of the effect I have on women. And men."

Stacey stared at her for a long moment.

"Did... did you reference a meme?" she asked.

Alea nodded excitedly.

"Dang it, Terresa!" Stacey hissed, glaring up at the stands where she assumed her girlfriend would be standing. "She was perfect and sweet and innocent and now you've got her referencing **memes**?!"

Stacey was about to continue berating her girlfriend over the loud speakers (she knew that Terresa was probably laughing loudly from her seat instead of being embarrassed, but a girl could hope to embarrass her girlfriend in front of thousands of people and on national television, right?), but Nora interrupted her chance.

"Team ATLS, listen up!" she called. "Stop trying to charm the audience and focus on the competition!"

Alea smiled sheepishly, but it looked like a roguish smirk.

"Sorry, Ms. Valkyrie!" she called into her microphone.

"Alea Ajax!" Nora admonished, speaking as if Alea was back in her class. "I said be quiet and let me speak!"

A beat of silence.

"Well alright then! Sorry for the interruption, folks! But, as I was going to say before I was so rudely cut off, we need to figure out what the two halves of the battlefield between team ATLS and team OCEN will be!" Nora called.

Alea grinned in excitement, glancing at Stacey, who rolled her eyes. She couldn't see it, but she could imagine the puppy-like enthusiasm that her girlfriend must be exhibiting.

The possible arenas started to shuffle by quickly, stopping slowly on-

"And the left side of the arena will be," Nora called loudly, " **mountains**! While the left side of the arena will be... _ocean_!" Nora hesitated. "Is... is that any different from the water one or is that like... the same thing?"

She didn't get her answer in words, but when the arena formed, she certainly got it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random thought:Belladonna-Schnee family Halloween group costume. Anyone got ideas for a theme?


	26. Cat Fight

Alea took a deep breath as the platform they stood on started to shift in response to the upcoming match.

Stacey's eyes widened in shock, and she reached out to put her hand on Alea's arm.

"Al," Stacey covered her microphone with one hand, "something's wrong."

"Hmm?" Alea turned around with a concerned look on her face. Stacey's eyes widened when she realized that Alea didn't look like she usually did. Her imposing figure had fallen apart, and Alea was left with her typical goofy persona.

"My sembla-"

On the other side of the field, the two members of OCEN stepped toward Alea and Stacey.

"Are you wondering why you can't do that little invisible trick of yours?" a man on the other team asked, grinning at them. "Well, that would be an effect **my** semblance, darling," he smirked at Stacey. "Since you were late, I guess we missed introductions. My name's Ethan, and you two are Alea and Stacey, if I'm not mistaken."

Alea nodded, grinning at him.

"Nice to meet you, Ethan!" she said.

He was taken aback, staring at Alea for a long moment before getting back to his point.

"Ya see, my semblance blocks out **other** semblances of my choice. And since I chose _you two_ , I guess that means the playing field's a bit more even."

Alea tilted her head to the side in confusion, her gaze darting to the large screen in the center of the stadium that showcased their Auras.

Hers was still full.

"Guess that means the infallible Alea is going to have to fight like the rest of us, ain't she, Nate?"

His teammate grinned, cracking his knuckles.

"That's right!"

"Let's see if she's really all she seems to think she is. I bet underneath that smirk there's nothing but a sad, frightened little girl that's about to get beaten because she doesn't have her own semblance to rely on anymore. You could always tell she was weak. I mean, weaker than most girls, that is. Nothing but a washed up old flirt."

Alea pulled her sword from its sheath, holding it in her hands and bouncing it up and down experimentally.

Alea finally grinned at her opponents, who still seemed confused that she had stopped her flirting act.

"Hey, Stac?" she called.

"Yeah, babe?"

"Do we need our semblances to high some tail?"

"You of all people would know the answer to that, wouldn't you?" Stacey asked, drawing her swatons with a small smirk.

"Looks like we're about to teach someone a lesson."

"Ironic, don't you think?" Stacey asked, smirking as she idly twirled her weapons in her hands.

Alea frowned and stared at her, eyes filled with what Stacey could only describe as adorable confusion.

"How so?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

Stacey didn't look at her girlfriend, staring Ethan in the eyes, starting to walk toward him intimidatingly.

"You decided to use this semblance on **Alea** of all people? You're so proud of yourself, aren't you? Thought you'd _really_ done something?" Stacey let out a scoff, shaking her head as the platform was finally done shifting. "You should have done your homework, bud, because _this_ beautiful woman," Stacey vaguely gestured at her girlfriend, making Alea grin at her lovingly, "lived almost her _whole life_ thinking she didn't have a semblance," Stacey finally stopped walking toward him, standing less than half a foot from him. "You really thought that you were clever. But you see, you have to be **better** than clever to beat Alea. You also have to be," she raised one hand and shoved him in the chest, " _good_. Now let's get this battle over with because you're already starting to bore me."

Stacey stepped backward and rejoined Alea.

Alea grinned at her, eyes fond as she reached down setting her hand on Stacey's shoulder.

"Aw, you're so cute when you're mean," Alea whispered.

Stacey rolled her eyes sufferingly.

Alea grinned at her lovingly, about to say something, but Nora finally got her wits about her, having lost them when she had heard Stacey unleash her mean side. Or, well, her **meanest** side, considering she was always a bit rude. Alea still found it cute.

"Alright... and with... **that** , let's get started!" Nora called. "In three... two... _one_!"

Alea grabbed Stacey by the hand and shoved her behind herself. Not even a second later, Alea was struck with a bullet where Stacey had been standing.

Ethan was all but foaming at the mouth after what Stacey had said, and said bullet had come from him.

Alea changed her weapon into its rifle form, already shooting at their opponents.

"Like I was saying," Stacey said, standing still with her arms crossed, "you **really** didn't do anything."

"Will you just shut up?!" Ethan shouted.

"I could," Stacey drawled, "but what would be the fun in that? How about this: I keep heckling you, and meanwhile my girlfriend beats the living dust out of you?"

Alea dashed forward as her girlfriend spoke. None of them had left the central platform, and Alea didn't seem to want to give them the chance.

Stacey had said they'd make quick work of them, so Alea was going to make her words true because that's what Alea did best. Make her girlfriends happy.

Alea's bullets hit home, and the two members of team OCEN stumbled back, struggling to defend themselves from Alea's intense offensive manuver.

Alea closed the distance between the other two and herself, her rifle turning into a broad sword almost instantaneously. It slammed against Nate first, but Alea ignored him as soon as he fell backward, his back hitting the ground.

Alea spun on her head, her sword swinging up to instinctively block the gunshot from Ethan's gun.

Alea brought her heel down hard, slamming it against Nate before she spun off of him, gaining momentum before she slammed her sword against Ethan.

Alea didn't pause before she transformed her weapon back into a rifle, sending several shots directly down at the two.

Alea was relentless, her eyes no longer holding the mirth that they usually did as she shot at them.

They were able to roll to their feet and try to get on the defensive, but Alea didn't have to look at the leader board to know that they were both **very** low on their Aura.

Stacey had her swatons back in their sheaths, and she was looking down at her nails distractedly. She didn't give the other team a second glance.

"You know," Stacey made a small frown as she held her nails up in front of her eyes, "if you hadn't said anything to insult us, you might have thought you had the chance to win. Alea would have gone easy on you, worried that she might hurt one of you physically instead of your fragile little egos, which I presume are lacking because of something," Stacey finally looked away from her nails to pointedly stare at the two boys' pants, "downstairs, but anyways, as I was trying to say, you decided to insult Alea. And Alea didn't really care about that, but it made **me** made, which upset Alea because she's a _wonderful_ person."

Alea swung her sword and **slammed** it full force against Ethan's chest. Alea tried to ignore the sense of pleasure it brought her. It always felt nice to beat someone up when they upset her girlfriends.

Alea's boot made a sickening **crunch** as it hit Nate's chest.

Stacey's smile widened, though she wasn't watching her girlfriend.

"I think that the saddest part about this is how **proud** you were! It got me thinking, do you get proud about stuff you absolutely _sucked_ at? Because not only did you fail at this, but you made your defeat _all the more humiliating_. And this is in front of **thousands** of people! Not to **mention** it's on national television! So while my girlfriend is not only beating the living dust out of you, without her semblance I might add, but I am also actively insulting you for everyone to hear, and you're too busy getting beat up to even reply."

Alea shot Nate in the face.

The buzzer went off, and Alea instantly spun, ignoring him as he whimpered on the ground.

Stacey had a smug and proud expression on her face.

"Oooh, that one **had** to hurt. I mean, at least I _hope_ it did, and I'm sure it did, considering Alea's the one that just did that. Not that I had to watch because, if you'll recall, I don't have to do _anything_ over here. You know, because my girlfriend is, I reiterate, beating the living dust out of you."

Alea glanced over her shoulder, not even watching Ethan as she blocked one of his bullets with her sword.

Alea gave Stacey a small smile before she spun around, deciding that Stacey had insulted him enough. Alea decided to put him out of his misery.

Alea spun at full speed, reaching her leg out and wrapping them behind his knees. Alea _tugged_ at them, and he fell with a sound of shock. Alea slammed her sword against his shoulder, making him cry out in pain, but she didn't mind it. Alea's rifle instantly changed into a rifle, and she shot him in the face. Twice.

The buzzer went off, and Alea smiled, stepping backward.

"Good game!" she said. As she spoke, her demeanor changed, becoming even more intimidating and regal, her smile turning to a smirk.

Stacey walked across the field slowly, not minding as the platform changed around them. She didn't _have_ to pay attention to that, because Alea had made sure nobody stepped out of the middle of the platform.

Stacey stopped when she reached her girlfriend and their enemies.

Stacey knelt down, smiling with fake sweetness.

 _Why don't I take a page out of Ivy's book?_ Stacey thought to herself.

Stacey reached down and grabbed Ethan's face in her hands, lifting him up. He was panting deeply, clearly still in pain from Alea's beatdown.

"You're nothing but a sad little of a sad little hill. Oh, bow down before him, bow down before the king of ants, ruler to insects, ruler of lies, ruler of **nothing** of importance. How much I _pity_ you and your fake sense of superiority that you wield. How much I _pity_ you and your perceived sense of importance... because when it truly comes down to it, you're still the king of **nothing**... and when you find yourself in need of help, do you know what you'll find?" Stacey whispered, leaning in closer. " **Nothing**. Because _that's_ what you are."

Alea reached down and put her hand on Stacey's shoulder.

"Babe, maybe that's enough."

Stacey looked back at her, eyes **blazing** with hatred.

"It will _never_ be enough, Alea. There will never **be** enough that I can say about how much he _disgusts_ me."

Alea knew that Stacey was locked in her state of hate, and there was only way to get her out of it.

Alea pulled Stacey closer to her, wrapping her arms around her waist.

"Thank you for defending my honor," Alea whispered, leaning down and giving her girlfriend a long kiss.

Stacey's tense muscles relaxed almost immediately as she melted into the embrace, reaching her hands up and putting them on Alea's cheeks, pulling her impossibly closer.

When they finally separated, Stacey was panting just slightly, staring up at her.

"Sorry I went a little overboard," she whispered, blushing just slightly.

"It's alright. For the record, I thought it was kinda cute."

Stacey laughed, shaking her head.

"How?"

"Everything you do is cute, Stac."

Stacey laughed against, letting her head fall against Alea's chest as she took deep, calming breaths.

"You're always the charmer, aren't you?"

"That's what they tell me," Alea whispered, leaning down and kissing the the top of Stacey's head.

"And with that, folks, team ATLS has cinched an **overwhelming** victory over their enemies, and with one of their members never having to land a blow!"

"How about we get away from the trash?" Stacey whispered. "It's starting to smell."

"I thought you were trying to be nicer now," Alea said, playfully poking her in the side.

Stacey rolled her eyes, swatting at the hand.

"Trying and nice **r** being the operative words, babe. Now let's seriously get out of here."

Alea smirked mischievously and Stacey's eyes widened.

"Wait, no-"

Stacey was cut off with a small squeak as Alea lifted her into the air, holding her in a gentle bridal carry.

She walked out of the stadium with a wide grin on her face, carrying her girlfriend the whole way, clutching her gently in her arms.

Stacey looked up at Alea and felt the anger completely drain out of her, breathing softly as her muscles completely relaxed, melting into Alea.

Maybe she had gotten a little out of hand, but that was only because she couldn't **stand** listening to people insult her girlfriend.

Only because she was in love.

Only because of Alea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, the most fun part of this chapter was writing Stacey's dialogue. She's the real cat here! STEP ASIDE BLAKE MAKE WAY FOR CATTY STACEY!
> 
> But like before you go bashing Stacey, remember someone just insulted Alea and she's SUPER pissed about that. Now you may go ahead and dislike her if you wish.


	27. Breakdown

"Ives, I don't know how far you wanted this to go, but earlier at the stadium I heard someone saying that you're their new sleep paralysis demon."

Ivy glanced over at Alea, raising an eyebrow.

"Did you know that a sleep paralysis demon-"

"I know what it is, Ives. Stop avoiding the question."

"Did you really hear someone say that?" Ivy asked.

"Stop changing the subject, and yes I did. You know I'm telling the truth because it's basically impossible to lie to you."

Ivy took a moment to think, eyes growing distracted as she looked into the distance.

"You can't do that with me, I know what's going on in that little head of yours," Alea said, reaching her hand up to gently knock against Ivy's head.

Ivy giggled and swatted at her hand, leaning against Alea.

"I think it's fun to play the part," Ivy whispered.

Alea glanced down at her, reaching an arm to wrap around her shoulders.

"But you're not playing a part, are you?" Alea muttered.

Ivy hesitated.

"It... it is a part. I... it's just a part that I know," Ivy paused, twiddling her thumbs in her lap. "Did... did you know that-"

Alea put her hand on Ivy's knee, silencing her.

"Whatever you're going to say, that's not what I need to know. What I need to know is how you **feel** , Ivy. Not what you can **sense**."

Ivy leaned further against her, sighing.

"I... I'm used to being scary," Ivy said, speaking exceedingly slow as she weighed her words. "I've always been _scary_ to people, and... I never meant to be. I've spent my whole life trying **not** to be scary, but..."

"But now you're trying to be, and it's weird," Alea finished for her.

Ivy didn't seem to know it, but in her state of disarray, she was broadcasting her emotions into Alea. The team leader didn't mind, and she pulled her closer.

The two had been sitting in the nursery watching the babies, but Alea gently reached down, grabbing Ivy under the knees with one hand and holding her back with the other.

As Ivy struggled to sort out her feelings, Alea leaned down to whisper into the baby monitor.

"I need to take Ivy out of here, one of you needs to watch her."

Not even a minute later, Weiss stepped inside, taking in the pair.

"Ivy needs a few minutes. We'll be back after," Alea whispered.

"Is she alright?" Weiss asked worriedly.

"She'll be fine. She just...," Alea pulled Ivy closer to her chest, and her friend reached up one hand to set on her arm, "sometimes has trouble with her emotions. Happens when you're constantly feeling everyone else's. I'm going to take her outside so we can talk. I don't want her to upset the kids."

Weiss nodded and Alea gently pushed the door open with her foot.

Ivy's hand was still clutching Alea's arm tightly.

She was using the team leader as an anchor, trying to ground herself and ignore everything around her as it seemed to be crushing in around her.

Alea gently set Ivy down outside on the porch chair, about to walk back inside, but Ivy clutched her. She was her lifeline.

"I just need to get the kit, Ives," she whispered gently.

Ivy's eyes were filled with tears.

"Please don't leave me," she whispered.

Alea leaned back down, pulling Ivy back into her arms.

"Alright, alright. I'm not going anywhere without you. How about we just take a little adventure inside and grab the kit, alright?"

Ivy nodded, but she didn't seem to be absorbing what Alea was saying.

The team leader hurried back inside, kicking open the door-making sure not to break it-and shifted Ivy into one arm, her friend not seeming to care and just clutching her arm. Alea leaned down and grabbed a small emergency kit. She'd left it out by the back door about an hour ago, knowing the time was coming for another Ivy breakdown.

Alea walked back outside and set Ivy on the lawn chair, although Ivy kept clutching her arm.

Alea rummaged through the kit, pulling out the blanket. It was a large blanket, a very thick one, and Alea threw it around Ivy's shoulders.

Ivy all but melted into it, burrowing in like it was her new lifeline. Alea leaned over and gently made sure that every bit of Ivy's body was covered, save for her face. Once she was sure, Alea laid out the sleeping bag, which she then hastily helped Ivy lay down in. Alea zipped it up gently before pulling out the final items from the bags. Alea reached out and put a pair of sunglasses on Ivy's face, adjusting them gently until they were set perfectly on her eyes.

Finally, Alea pulled out a battery operated sound machine, which she turned on.

Ivy took a deep breath, her eyes falling shut behind her sunglasses.

Alea scooted closer, setting one hand on the edge of the sleeping bag.

"Hey. Are you feeling better?" Alea whispered.

Ivy nodded slowly, taking another slow breath in.

"Yeah. Thank you."

Alea smiled, running her hand up and down the sleeping bag.

To the casual observer, it would have been weird to see that Ivy had been wrapped up in a burrito twice over, but Alea had discovered the first time they'd met exactly why this helped.

When Ivy was overwhelmed, she needed either something to focus on, or she needed to be completely isolated from external stimuli, which is why Alea had wrapped her up so tightly and covered her eyes. The sound machine might have been overkill, but she thought that it was good to be over prepared for this sort of event, especially since the first time she'd spoken to Ivy had been when she **wasn't** prepared, and the idea of seeing Ivy like that again still scared her.

_/_

_Alea was sitting alone in the library, studying. She'd had to get out of the dorm room after all of the... awkwardness that had been happening. Alea wasn't sure what was happening, but her teammates were acting awkward around her, and she needed some time alone to get her work done._

_She'd been studying for two hours now, though she was slightly distracted by thoughts of her teammates. She'd been dating them all for a little while now, but recently there was some tension between the three that she couldn't understand. She had a lot of trouble understanding things that happened in social situations. They all just flew over her head, and this was nothing new, the familiar frustration filling her. She wasn't mad at her teammates for making it impossible for her to understand them, but mad at herself for not knowing how to just..._

_How to just **fit in**!_

_She'd learned recently about her own semblance, and she supposed that had something to do with her stunted ability to handle social situations._

_Alea let out a sigh, letting her head fall against the desk with a small **thump**. She sighed, wondering if she should just give up on her homework and realize that she wasn't going to actually be able to focus._

_She was considering standing up and leaving, perhaps to go for a walk as she went through her thoughts, but she hesitated when she heard a small whimpering._

_Alea paused, falling completely silent._

_As far as she'd known, there was nobody else in the library, but apparently she'd been wrong, considering there was someone that was crying somewhere in the stacks._

_Alea slowly stood, taking small steps as she walked through the library, zeroing in on the noise._

_After a few minutes of searching, she found her mark._

_Alea knelt down beside a small, shaking form._

_The girl was hyperventilating, shaking as she rocked back and forth. She was taking short, heaving breaths, eyes squeezed shut as she whimpered._

_Alea was about to speak, but the girl went first._

_"Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen..."_

_Alea reached her hand out slowly, not sure if she could touch the other girl, or if that would be the right idea._

_"Hey, hey, it's alright. Is there something I can do-"_

_The girl's eyes shot open, focusing on Alea instantly._

_Alea suddenly remembered the other girl's name. Ivy. It was Ivy._

_"Hey, Ivy," she said soothingly, her hand reaching out to set itself on Ivy's._

_Immediately, thoughts and emotions flooded Alea._

_For a moment, it was gibberish, overwhelming, too much._

_Alea understood why Ivy was curled up in the corner of the library, shaking and almost unable to breathe without hyperventilating. But Alea suddenly latched onto a familiar feeling as they shot through her._

_Misunderstanding. Misinterpreted._

_Alea wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but she reached out and pulled Ivy closer to her, knowing without seeing that Ivy was crying._

_Ivy reached out and grabbed onto Alea's arms, holding them tightly._

_Alea was still being flooded with new feelings and thoughts, but she didn't let that distract her._

_Alea pulled Ivy into her arms, letting the other girl cry against her chest, still clutching her._

_Alea felt the overwhelming sensations from the world around her start to ease. Alea realized the correlation, and she pushed herself to her feet while Ivy continued to clutch her chest. Alea adjusted her grasp on Ivy and pulled her into her arms so that she was more completely surrounded by Alea. The sensations continued to ease._

_Alea rocked back and forth._

_"So, uh... I don't know exactly what's going on right now, but... it seems that you're a bit overwhelmed. I get that, and not just because I can feel it," Alea laughed awkwardly, speaking quietly as she held her closely._

_Ivy shook in her arms, reaching out and grabbing her tighter._

_Alea felt Ivy suddenly dive into her thoughts, her emotions, her past... **her**._

_It only took a few moments, but when Ivy had pulled back, she looked a bit more relaxed._

_Alea didn't know what had happened, but she felt a bit exposed, like someone had just seen into the deepest parts of her mind._

_Ivy was breathing more controlled now, and her gaze became more focused as she looked up at Alea._

_"It's nice to meet you, Alea Ajax," she whispered, giving the other girl a small, slightly nervous smile._

_"Uh... you too, Ivy," Alea said back awkwardly._

_Ivy's eyes suddenly widened in disbelief._

_"Oh my dust," she breathed._

_"What? What's wrong?" Alea whispered, pulling Ivy closer to herself and clearly wondering if she was about to have another breakdown._

_"I shouldn't have done that," Ivy muttered, running a hand through her hair. "That's rude, Ivy. Very rude. You know better than to do that," she hissed at herself._

_"Hey, hey, whatever it was that you did that was rude, I don't mind. I'm just glad you're feeling better," Alea said, smiling down at her._

_Ivy giggled._

_"Of course you'd say that, Alea."_

_Alea frowned in confusion, and Ivy's eyes widened. She clearly had an idea._

_"May I?" Ivy asked, reaching her hands up toward Alea's face._

_The team leader laughed at the words._

_"You didn't ask the first time, and you seem to know a lot about me by now, so you might as well!" Alea said jokingly._

_Ivy smiled at her with the sort of fondness of an old friend, reaching her hands up to cradle Alea's face. A moment later, she was filled with thoughts and memories and... **Ivy**._

_A few moments passed, and Alea looked down at her, a crooked grin on her face._

_"It's nice to meet you too, Ivy Hanson. You do that to anyone you meet?" she asked jokingly._

_Ivy considered for a moment._

_"No."_

_"Why me then?"_

_Ivy smiled up at her, and Alea knew the answer._

_There was just something familiar about Ivy. Like a parallel that Alea hadn't known she'd needed._

_"You want to take a seat, or do you need a minute?" Alea asked._

_"I'm feeling a lot better now."_

_/_

Alea laid down beside the sleeping bag, staring up at the sky.

"So what are you feeling?" she asked.

"A bit... conflicted. I want to win, I want to help my team... but I don't want people to be scared of me."

"You seem to enjoy creeping out people sometimes," Alea pointed out.

Ivy considered.

"I do."

"Then how's this different?"

"Because... there's so many of them. Usually whenever I creep someone out, I can talk to them one on one later and show them that I'm not as creepy as they thought. But now..."

"Now you won't get the chance."

Ivy nodded inside her burrito.

"Well, maybe you will," Alea said.

Ivy stared at her, frowning in confusion.

Alea rolled over so that she could look at Ivy.

"Why don't you win this tournament, and then you can show them all what you're really like?" Alea suggested.

Ivy smiled at her for a long moment before relaxing further into her sleeping bag.

"Thank you," Ivy whispered.

Alea reached her hand out and set it on top of Ivy's sleeping bag.

"You know you don't have to thank me by now, Ives."

Ivy's eyes filled with tears, and Alea reached out, taking off her sunglasses for just a moment to wipe them away before putting them back on.

They sat in comfortable silence for a long moment before Alea spoke.

"Why did you?" she asked.

Ivy couldn't sense Alea from her cocoon, but she knew what she was talking about.

"Because you were the only one that ever...," Ivy trailed off.

Alea propped herself up a bit on her elbow to look down at her friend.

"In the library, you were the only one that ever stayed."

"What do you mean?"

"Nobody else ever... I mean, people have **tried** to stay with me during my breakdowns, but... they've never been able to handle what I was going through, and they left. You were the only one that ever stayed to weather it out with me."

Alea considered for a moment before she shuffled closer on top of the sleeping bag.

"Nobody? Not even family? Natalie and Rachel?"

"They... they _tried_ , but... even when they were able to withstand it, I could never distract myself with them. They always crumpled when I tried... tried to lean on them, just like Holly did. But you... you were different, Alea. You were someone that I could lean on during them. And for Natalie and Rachel... I don't want to put them through that. I don't want them to see me like that because I know how much it hurts to watch someone you love go through that. And... And I don't think they'd be able to do what you could do, Lea. There's something about you specifically that lets you be my rock."

"What?" Alea asked, staring at her curiously.

"I don't know. I could say that it's your semblance, I could say that it's because we're parallels...," Ivy forced herself to sit up some, staring at Alea. "or maybe it's really just you."

Alea leaned closer and put her face beside Ivy's, laying beside her gently.

"Well, regardless, I'm glad that I get to be the one that can help."

"Me too."


	28. Nerves

Ivy reached out and set her hand on Alea's own, giving her an idle smile. The two were sitting in the locker rooms for the tournament, waiting for their fights.

The locker room had been milling with people that were about to do their one on one fights, but the moment Ivy had stepped inside, it had become suspiciously empty.

Ivy leaned back against the wall, her eyes falling shut.

Alea watched her for a long moment before she reached down and tugged Ivy out of the room.

"How about we go for a walk to calm my nerves?" Alea asked.

Ivy's fingers were threaded between Alea's own, and she could tell that her friend was lying about her reasoning.

Ivy didn't care.

The two walked down the hallway together in silence for a few minutes before a form appeared suddenly, causing Alea to push Ivy behind her with a distrustful glare, hand dropping down to her waist to grab at her sword.

She calmed when she saw that it was just that nosy reporter from before.

The woman looked between them, raising an eyebrow, and Alea glanced back at Ivy.

Ivy took a deep breath before she pulled herself forward, a small, creepy smile on her face.

"Ivy Hanson, what's your response to the comments about your last interview?"

Ivy just grinned, looking up from behind the bit of hair that she had let fall in front of her eyes.

"I don't understand why they're all so nervous," Ivy drawled. "After all, they've only see the unknown. They didn't even have to see what I did in the doubles round."

Alea smirked, arms crossed against her chest.

"I don't think even Holly knows what you did," Alea remarked.

The reporter instantly turned her attention to Alea, holding up the microphone toward her.

"What do you have to say about your huge popularity in this tournament, Ms. Ajax?"

Alea hesitated before she put on a smirk.

"I guess I'd have to say thank you to the fans. You're all too kind," Alea winked at the camera.

"And what do you have to say about the rumors?"

"What rumors?" Alea asked, her gaze darting to Ivy for just a moment. Ivy was still smirking at the camera, playing with her gun idly. Alea knew that Ivy's attention was on her, though.

"The rumors that you're cheating on Ms. Seneca, of course."

Alea frowned in confusion.

"What? Of course I'm not cheating on my girlfriend!" Alea offered a smile that turned to a smirk-

Ivy covered her mouth before the camera could get a look of it by stepping in front of Alea and leaning closer to the camera.

"What makes you think I'd cheat on Stacey?!" Alea asked, her voice filled with offense at the very idea.

"You were seen on camera several times holding hands with Ms. Hanson."

Alea held back a laugh, biting her lip to do so.

"You think I'm cheating on her with Ivy?! That's...," Alea barely stopped herself from continuing to point out that, if anything, they should have mentioned Terresa or Lexey. "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard, and I'm friends with Ivy."

"It's true, I say some crazy things," Ivy said with a small smirk on her face.

"Plus, Ivy's already in a relationship," Alea said, waving her hand dismissively. "So this is ridiculous."

"So what about the rumors that you're cheating on Stacey with your other teammates?"

Alea hesitated.

"I... one second, I need to make a call," the team leader said, pulling out her scroll and dialing a familiar number. "Hey, beautiful."

"What do you want?"

"What makes you think I want something?" Alea asked, offended.

"You only call me at random and call me beautiful when you want something," Stacey said.

"What does she want?" Terresa called in the background.

"Are... are we public?" Alea whispered into the scroll.

"Of course!" Lexey cried.

The reporter glanced at Ivy, frowning.

"Did.... did she seriously just make a call?"

"Did she?" Ivy asked.

"Are... you repeating my questions?"

"Am I?"

The reporter sighed and shook her head at Ivy.

"You're so creepy."

"You haven't seen anything yet."

"Heck yeah we're public!" Terresa called.

"Are you on television?" Stacey asked quietly.

"Uh... yeah? I don't know if it's live," Alea said.

"It is," Ivy said dismissively. "It can't exactly be **dead** , Lea."

Alea snorted.

"Are you seriously going to out us right now on national television?" Stacey asked.

"Yep! It's either that or I'm apparently cheating on you! Love you, bye!"

"HE-"

Alea ended the call, turning to face the camera with a wide smirk.

"I'm not cheating on her!" she said proudly.

The reporter gave Alea a long look.

"And you had to call your girlfriend to check and see if you were?"

"Correction," Alea said, "I had to call my **girlfriends** to see if I could tell you that I'm _not_ cheating on them with each other."

There was a beat of silence.

"You know," Alea had a smug look on her face, "Terresa, Lexey, and Stacey. My girlfriends."

"I think she got that, Lea," Ivy said, patting her on the arm.

Alea still had a smug look on her face.

"They're great. They're-"

Ivy put her hand on Alea's arm.

_You know that if you go on a rant you'll embarrass Stacey._

Alea let out a quiet sigh at the true thoughts from Ivy.

_Right._

"Do you have any real questions?" Alea asked.

"Yes, actually. The fans are wondering about your semblances. It's been a very heated debate.

Alea grinned at Ivy, but it was seen as, yet another, smug smirk.

"I myself am just a glorified tank," Alea said, though her answer was noticeably evasive. "As for Ivy... well," Alea smirked knowingly, her eyes portraying a slight warning as she looked into the camera, "that's for her next opponent to figure out, isn't it? But, I suppose, they don't have a very good chance, do they, Ives?"

Ivy grinned crookedly.

"I suppose if they were confident about it, people wouldn't have been so scared to be around me," Ivy laughed quietly, a high pitched giggle that could almost be called akin to a witch's cackle. "But maybe that was a good decision to be afraid, considering almost everyone I've ever met has been scared of me in _some_ way."

Alea set her hand on Ivy's shoulder, smirking at the cameras. However, at the same time, she sent Ivy as much comfort as she could.

Ivy leaned just a bit closer to her, absorbing the feeling as best she could.

The reporter was about to ask another question, but Alea spoke first.

"Sorry, ma'am, but we really _must_ be going. Thanks for the chat!"

Alea looped her arm around Ivy and led her away, pulling her tighter against her side.

"You alright?" she whispered.

"Yeah. I will be."

Alea was about to say something, but her scroll rang and she pulled it out of her pocket, giving her friend a small apologetic smile.

"Just a sec!"

Alea answered the scroll.

"Did you seriously just out us all on national television?!" Stacey growled.

"Uh... I thought we agreed-"

"You three did! I didn't!"

"Well it was either that or I was labeled a philander and you know I can't handle that!" Alea all but whined.

"I just got a call from my mom!" Stacey hissed. "She started asking me if I was really dating you three or if I was on drugs."

"What... what did you say?" Alea asked quietly.

"I panicked and told her this was a wrong number!"

"Why would you do that?" Alea asked, keeping her voice low and gentle. She could hear Lexey and Terresa laughing loudly in the background.

"Because I **panicked** , Al!"

"Did you not tell her about our relationship?" Lexey asked from behind Stacey.

"No!"

"Well that's you fault," Lexey's voice said in the back. "I called my parents right after and pretty much ranted about you three for **hours** after we got together."

"Yeah, I told my mom I was dating someone. I may not have mentioned it was more than one _someone_ , but she probably expects that from me," Terresa called.

"I didn't tell my mom, actually, I get it," Alea said, shrugging. "But she probably didn't watch this."

"Well good for you!" Stacey cried. "But I-"

Ivy reached out and grabbed Alea's scroll.

"The match is starting soon, we have to go get ready."

Ivy hung up, and Alea gave her a small look, raising an eyebrow.

"You just hung up on my girlfriends."

"They were boring and they were yelling at you."

Alea burst out laughing, pulling Ivy closer.

"You know I'm going to have to pay for that later, right?" Alea questioned.

"I don't plan to be there."

Alea rolled her eyes, but she grinned at her friend.

-

Ivy leaned back against the wall, taking a deep breath in and out, preparing herself.

"You don't have to do this, you know," Rachel offered quietly, putting a hand on Ivy's shoulder.

"You can just switch one of us in. Or you can show that you're not creepy! Or we can just... just not do this," Natalie offered gently, smiling down at her girlfriend supportively.

Ivy laughed, leaning against the two of them.

"Did you know that I love you?" she whispered.

Natalie blushed and Rachel grinned.

"I can do this, and I know that you two want to win, so I'll do whatever I can to make that happen."

"But we want you to be happy more," Natalie whispered, rubbing her hand up and down Ivy's back comfortingly.

"As long as I have you two, I'm happy. Now let go, I need to go kick some butt."

-

Ivy stalked onto the platform slowly, a small smirk on her face.

"And entering from the right is team ORIN's Ivy Hanson!" Nora cheered. "Now Ivy has been an interesting competitor in this tournament, not dealing **any** damage in the first round, but absolutely _destroying_ her enemies in the second round! Her semblance has been kept secret for the entire tournament, but there's been speculation that she made her competitor Holly go mad in the second round, begging for Ivy to break her Aura!"

There was a mixture of cheers and boos from the crowd, and Ivy smirked up at the stands with an eery look on her face, waving far too slowly for it to be considered natural in this situation.

"And coming in from the left is DSTY's team leader Derek! In the first round, he single-handedly took out all four members of the other team, and continued this pattern in the second round, taking out both of his competitors! Will he pose a match for Ivy Hanson?!"

Derek laughed at the question, looking down at Ivy with disbelief.

"Will I pose a **match** for her? Please! The second round was nothing but a fluke for her!"

Ivy smirked, slowly stalking toward the center at a controlled pace, not hurrying in the slightest and actually seeming almost bored.

"You're right," she said lowly, but her words were carried by the microphone. "It **was** a fluke."

Derek started to laugh, but Ivy continued.

"Because I decided to let Natalie take one down."

Derek hesitated. Ivy just smirked at him, her gaze slightly unfocused, as if he wasn't worth her entire attention.

Ivy glanced at him once, taking him in quickly. Derek was tall. As in **very** tall, considering he was almost twice as large as Ivy. He was also broad shouldered, his body coated in far too many muscles that Ivy assumed were just for show. In summary, he looked like he was literally the size of three Ivys.

He pulled out his weapon, a large club, and gestured at Ivy threateningly.

Ivy didn't seem bothered in the slightest. Her guns were still in their sheaths, and the only action she took was to kick of her shoes, leaving them at the edge of the platform.

Derek frowned in confusion, and Ivy just shot him a small smirk.

"The match will begin in three," Nora's voice echoed through the stadium, "two," Derek readied himself, lowering toward the ground, "one!"

Ivy watched her opponent race toward her with impossible speed. Ivy let her eyes fall shut, blocking out all the noise that she could.

Derek swung his club, and the vibrations of the air hit Ivy several moments before the club came down toward her.

Ivy's foot trailed against the floor in a swift arch, causing her to twirl out of the way in a tight circle.

Derek stumbled as Ivy avoided the attack.

He growled, and Ivy let her eyes open again, remembering that she needed to taunt him.

Derek shot toward her, and Ivy waited until the last possible moment before she twirled back out of the way. He stumbled and almost fell over.

"Are you even going to fight?!"

"Why should I when you're already fighting yourself?" Ivy asked.

Another swing, another twirl out of the way.

Derek had finally had enough. He let out a loud growl before he dashed toward Ivy at full speed, looking as if he was about to tackle her.

 _Too easy_ , Ivy thought.

As his foot planted, Ivy spun at full speed, ducking under the attack before she reached one foot out, hooking it behind his ankle. She pulled, sending him stumbling forward, before pulling out of guns, shooting up him.

He grunted and then stumbled further, but he reached out, trying to strike Ivy. Ivy rolled deftly to the side, landing with one foot and one knee pressed against the ground. She pushed her rifles together, hearing the familiar click as it turned into a sword, and she swung it at her competitor.

Derek stumbled and fell to the ground, swinging his club at Ivy even as he did so. Ivy rolled again and leapt to her feet deftly, raising her weapon and slamming her sword against his chest.

Ivy smirked at the groan that erupted from her competitor. Ivy swung her sword, about to attack, but stopped it as soon as she saw his arms reach up toward her.

Ivy rolled backward as Derek shoved himself to his feet, glaring darkly at Ivy.

Ivy stood again as her competitor got ready to attack. She twirled her sword between her fingers for a moment before sliding it back into its sheath.

Derek growled at her, racing forward. Ivy twirled to the side and he stumbled again, but this time Ivy decided to make her real move.

Ivy's sword was out of its sheath in less than a second, and she slammed it against the back of his head. Derek stumbled and let out a cry of shock, making Ivy smirk.

Ivy used the stumbling to her advantage, reaching her foot forward and kicking him in the back of the knee. He fell forward and Ivy leapt after him, swinging her sword and slamming it back against his hand. He cried out and dropped his club. Ivy hurried forward, kicking his weapon and sending it spiraling off of the platform. At the same time, Ivy had transformed her swords back into gun form, and she shot at him.

Derek stumbled to his feet as his Aura continued to quickly deteriorate from Ivy's attacks. He raced across the platform, trying to avoid any of her bullets. Ivy's eyes were closed, and she was feeling his movements against the platform in front of her.

A few moments later, Ivy heard a buzzer, and her eyes flashed back open as she put her guns back into their sheaths. She had a small smirk on her face, but she didn't say anything as she stood there, waiting for the platform to shift and allow her to exit.

After a beat of silence from the crowd, loud cheering erupted, and Ivy looked up at the sky, eyes closed. She smirked and listened to the sound, letting it overwhelm her.

Finally, the platform shifted and a bridge opened for her to walk across to reach the exit.

Ivy was about to, but she paused, turning back to face not just her fallen competitor, but the audience as well.

"Call that a fluke," Ivy said into her microphone.

She walked out of the arena, not looking behind her shoulder.

-

Alea had barely had time to congratulate her best friend for her victory before she herself was all but shoved into the arena (via a still frustrated Stacey).

The second Alea set foot in the arena, loud cheering erupted from the crowd. Alea could feel the stadium shake slightly from the noise, and she smiled awkwardly, waving up at the audience.

She was surprised to see the screen above her showcase a version of her with a sultry smirk, waving confidently.

Alea sent out a wink as she came to a halt in the middle platform.

She didn't know it, but there were several people that were _physically_ drooling over her. Alea's eyes searched through the first few rows of the audience until she found her girlfriends and team ORIN.

Alea smirked at them, winking again, and Stacey rolled her eyes, fighting off a smile at her girlfriend's adorableness mixed with seductiveness.

Seriously, it wasn't fair! A person could be either or neither, but they can't be both! It wasn't fair that Alea was! It made it almost impossible for her to be mad at her.

Stacey felt her scroll buzz, and she knew it was her mother.

She supposed that maybe it wasn't _quite_ impossible.

Nora tried to speak for a few minutes, but the cheering for Alea was so loud that she was drowned out the first few times she tried, even with the microphones.

A few moments later, once people had mostly settled down, Nora spoke.

"On the left we have team ATLS' team leader, and crowd favorite, Alea Ajax! After her debut in the first round, in which she helped her teammates defeat DRGN, Alea gained a lot of popularity from schools outside of her own, but this popularity only increased after the second round, in which Alea was able to defeat both of her competitors on her own without any help from her teammate Stacey."

Cheering started up again, and Alea let out a quiet sigh, waving her hand again. She was glad that people seemed to like her, but it still felt weird to have a stadium full of people that were listening to her.

"And on the left is team SYTN's team leader Syntheia!" Nora called.

Alea waited for more elaboration, but she didn't get any.

Alea shrugged at the difference in their introductions.

"Hey, my name's Alea, nice to meet you," Alea said softly, trying not to let it carry over the microphone. It did.

The other team leader rolled her eyes, ignoring the hand that Alea had extended to shake with her.

Alea coughed awkwardly.

"Uh...," she covered her microphone with one hand, "sorry about that introduction, I really, **really** don't understand why everyone's cheering."

The other girl didn't respond, and Alea was forced to sit in the awkwardness.

Alea let go of her microphone and shrugged up at her team and team ORIN.

She hoped this battle went by fast because this was definitely awkward.

"The match will start in three," Alea pulled out her sword, giving her enemy one last smile, "two," the other girl rolled her eyes, "one!" Nora cried.

Alea took a deep breath before she raced forward, preparing for a quick fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I scrounged through the wiki like a crazy person for a few minutes and found that there are EIGHT finalists in the singles round, which means that, presumably, there are two rounds AFTER that (round 4- 4 people, round 5- 2 people) so...
> 
> WHY IS IT LIKE THIS THAT'S SO MANY FIGHTS WHAT THE HECK


	29. Written in Stone

Alea darted forward, her sword raised. She wasn't used to attacking first, but her enemy, Syntheia, hadn't made the first move, so Alea had decided to.

She raised her sword and swung, but Syntheia all but flowed out of the way of her attack.

Alea's eyes widened in shock when Syntheia brought her weapon up. Alea's sword was halted in its progression by a pair of nunchucks, the chain between the two halves holding up Alea's sword.

The team leader didn't hesitate, bringing her leg up and kicking out at Syntheia's leg.

The other girl leapt up a moment before Alea's leg could hit her.

Alea was surprised, but didn't let it phase her.

Syntheia brought her weapon back, causing Alea to almost stumble in surprise, but the team leader was able to stabilize herself. Alea swung at Syntheia with her sword, but the other girl rolled to the side, hurrying back to her feet and starting to swing her nunchucks around her, building momentum. There was something off about Syntheia's movements, but Alea couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

Before she could consider anything further, she was forced to take a step forward, bringing up her sword to block a swing from Syntheia.

Syntheia didn't seem deterred in the slightest, her nunchucks moving like liquid around Alea's weapon and then hitting Alea in the face.

Alea stumbled backward, holding her sword up defensively, trying to get her barrings back after the hard hit to the head. Syntheia didn't give her the chance to get her head on straight, advancing with momentum as she swung her nunchucks around her body, building momentum again.

Alea was desperate, and she knew that Syntheia would **somehow** be able to get around her sword like she had before, so she turned her weapon back to rifle form, shooting at Syntheia.

Syntheia's movements were fluid as she twirled between the bullets, avoiding them by mere centimeters.

Alea's eyes widened in shock, stumbling back as she continued to shoot at Syntheia, but her bullets continued to seem like no issue to her.

Alea had only ever seen one person that moved with such certainty like this, and the idea made her heart rate pick up slightly.

Her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and anxieties, but she quieted them. She had to be methodical about this.

Syntheia obviously wasn't quite like Ivy in terms of her semblance. Not just because she kept her eyes open, wasn't getting overwhelmed by the loud noises all around her, and still had her shoes on, but also...

There was just **something** about her movements! Something that Ivy didn't have.

Where Ivy seemed to move the moment before she got hit, dancing out of the way as if life was set to music and she was in some sort of ballet, Syntheia moved with a **different** sort of grace. Syntheia flowed like water, her gaze constantly latched onto Alea and her weapon, and she moved out of the way of attacks far faster than Ivy did.

What was the difference?

Alea wracked her brain for ideas while struggling to keep herself from getting attacked by Syntheia with a barrage of bullets from her rifle.

Alea needed to think of something before it was too late.

Why did Syntheia react **faster** than Ivy?! That was impossible, wasn't it? Ivy knew the vibrations in the air, the ground, and more the **moment** they happened, so-

Alea's eyes widened, and her gaze darted to her opponent.

"You're seeing the future!" she hissed.

Syntheia hesitated on her approach, staring at Alea in shock.

"What?! Of course I'm not!"

"Your semblance lets you see into the future, Syntheia! That's why you're reacting so fast!"

"My semblance does **not** let me see into the future!" Syntheia cried.

Alea could tell that her opponent had been keeping it a secret from the beginning of the competition. If Alea had a semblance like that, she'd keep it secret too! Dust, she kept her **own** semblance a secret, and she didn't think it was anywhere near as cool as Syntheia's.

"Oh yeah?" Alea asked.

Her finger twitched toward the trigger. Syntheia instantly reacted to a bullet that never flew, spinning to the side. Alea never shot.

Alea smirked.

"You see the future!"

Alea's moment of pride suddenly turned into fear as Syntheia let out a frustrated growl, glaring at her.

"Oh dust," Alea muttered. "I... should not have said that aloud, should I?"

"Probably not," Syntheia replied, a small smirk growing across her lips.

Before Alea could reply, Syntheia darted forward at full speed, flowing between Alea's bullets like a fluid substance.

Alea's bullets meant nothing to her, and the team leader transformed her weapon back to normal as she continued to stumble backwards.

There had to be a way to beat her.

Nobody was unstoppable, no matter what their semblance was!

Dust, team RWBY had shown her that after everything they'd been through! Alea could beat one girl with slight precognition if team RWBY and their friends could take out like... Grimm in person form, right?

Alea nodded her head, forcing herself to focus.

She had little time, but more than most people would.

Syntheia had kept up her attack for the past minute, and Alea had been struggling to not get her Aura broken. She was silently thankful that she had so much extra Aura. She'd been able to successfully deflect... two of Syntheia's attacks. That's it.

Alea felt like a failure for that, but she didn't let herself focus on that fact. She had to focus on what her opponent's weakness could.

Something tickled the back of her thoughts, but she was distracted. Although, to be fair, it was a very distracting occasion.

Syntheia swung her nunchucks to gain momentum, and Alea tried to use her sword to block one of the attacks, but she couldn't quite get ahead of the other girl.

Syntheia's nunchucks raised and smacked against her head before bouncing off. Syntheia twirled with ease on her heel, slamming the weapon against Alea's side.

Alea stumbled and, as she fell, transformed her sword into a rifle, shooting at her adversary.

She knew that Syntheia would be able to get out of the way of any shots, but Alea knew that it would also slow her down.

"Despite figuring out Syntheia's semblance, as nobody else in the competition has been able to do," Nora's voice rang over the microphone, "Alea is still struggling against her opponent and has **not** been able to get a hit on her!"

"Thanks for the bode of confidence, Ms. Valkyrie," Alea muttered into her microphone. She pushed herself to her feet with one hand while continuing to shoot at Syntheia with her other.

There was something that continued to bug her...

Alea suddenly had a flash of memory, and a sort of desperate hope shot through her.

The last time she'd been shooting at Syntheia, she'd figured out her semblance...

And then she'd been able to **prove** it by...

Alea's fingers twitched toward the trigger, and Syntheia flowed out of the way of the oncoming bullet.

Except said bullet never fired, and Alea's rifle had already moved, tracking where Syntheia was going to stop.

She fired, this time for real, and Syntheia let out a sound of shock, reaching one hand down to her side as the bullet bounced off of her Aura.

Her eyes shot to Alea in shock, but Alea didn't let herself be distracted. She shot a quick round, the first two striking home before Syntheia allowed herself to flow out of the way,

Alea's lips turned into a smug smirk. For **real** this time, something that made Ivy smile just slightly.

"And in a shocking twist of events, Alea Ajax seems to have figured out a loophole in Syntheia's semblance, allowing her to hit her!" Nora cried. She was barely heard over the loud cheering from the audience.

Alea took a moment to think before she grinned further, transforming her weapon into a sword before she dashed forward.

Syntheia took an uncomfortable step backward.

Something **weird** was happening.

Alea's gun had shown the ghostly outlines of bullets to show their path, as all things did, but they had never appeared.

And then, moments later, Alea had struck her with bullets **without** outlines.

That made... no sense.

Alea's semblance didn't have anything to do with disrupting bullets, which meant that it had to be something she had figured out...

Alea advanced on her quickly.

Syntheia could see her footsteps before they landed, could see the ghostly shadow that she fell into moments before her legs filled them.

Her semblance wasn't without faults, Syntheia knew that for sure. Her semblance wouldn't work for long spurts of time, but when she flared it, she could see **several** seconds into the future.

She'd heard that some people had a semblance very much akin to her own, but in a passive state. Hers, however, was a bit more malleable, and she could change how much she could see into the future at any given time, as long as she hadn't been using it for too long.

But she'd never seen her semblance have **this** particular fault.

Alea had somehow... changed something.

Alea was on her in moments, but Syntheia knew exactly what she had to do to avoid Alea's blows. They were predictable and almost bland to the-

Alea's sword arched through the air toward Syntheia's chest, and her nunchucks raised to block it.

Alea's Aura alerted her of the movement less than a second before it happened, but it was more than enough. Her sword changed directions mid-swing, and Alea's weapon slammed against Syntheia's gut.

Syntheia saw the shift in trajectory too late, Alea's sword striking her harshly and sending her flying backward.

Syntheia struck the ground, and Alea raced forward, swinging her sword down toward her.

Syntheia watched the sword's ghost hit her in the chest, and she rolled to the side-

Only to find Alea's boot slamming against her back, pinning her to the ground.

Alea found herself smirking smugly again.

She was using her enemy's semblance **against** her.

Syntheia wasn't only reacting to the future, she was also _showing_ Alea the future from said reactions.

Not to mention the fact that by reacting so early, Syntheia was all but **begging** to have this happen. Clearly, nobody else had ever shown her this particular flaw in her semblance.

Syntheia struggled to get to her feet, swinging her nunchucks at Alea's leg, but Alea reacted quick enough, bringing her sword down and slamming it against Syntheia's chest.

Alea then transformed her weapon into rifle form, shooting down at Syntheia.

Syntheia struggled to get out of her grasp, but Alea had her foot securely holding her in place, still planted on her back as she lay there.

A moment later, the buzzer when off, and Alea stopped her finger just before it could pull the trigger. She put her weapon back in its sheath before she knelt down, reaching her hand out for Syntheia.

Alea found a dazed look on her opponent's face.

"You alright?" Alea asked, holding her lightly on the arm.

Syntheia was about to respond, but a booming voice cut her off.

"Unbelievable!" Nora cried. "Alea seems to have beaten Syntheia **without** running her semblance down!"

Despite the cheering, Alea leaned over to talk to her competitor. Or, well, _former_ competitor, she supposed.

"Your semblance runs out?" she asked, all but yelling to be heard.

Syntheia nodded.

"Dust! If I'd know that...," Alea sighed, reaching one hand up to run through her hair, grimacing just slightly at the sweat in it (she didn't notice that almost everyone's eyes were locked on her as she did that, her teammates/girlfriends especially), "well, if I'd known that, maybe I would have lost, to be honest!"

Alea chuckled, and she turned back to look at Syntheia as she helped her off of the platform.

Syntheia's eyes were wide as she stared at Alea in disbelief.

"How did you do that?!" she asked.

Alea opened her mouth to speak, then hesitated, reaching out to cover both of their microphones.

"You react too fast," Alea whispered. "I can tell what you see because of what you react to, and then I change what I'm going to do, and that changes what you see."

Syntheia looked a little confused, so Alea decided to reword it.

"You see the future, and then you react to it. But if you react to it early, then **I** get to see the future that _you_ know, so **I** can react to that and change the future before it even happens."

Syntheia stared at Alea with wide eyes.

"That's... brilliant," she breathed.

Alea chuckled awkwardly, releasing their microphones.

"I wouldn't say it's _brilliant_ , but I'd definitely say it's cheating," Alea said with another nervous laugh.

As the two started to walk out of the arena, the cheering for Alea still seeming to make the ground vibrate with its intensity, Syntheia took of her microphone before reaching out to grab Alea's.

"Hey, I'm... I'm sorry I didn't say anything before the match."

Alea grinned at her.

"Eh, it's alright. Most people either love me or hate me at first interaction," Alea gave her a friendly wink and laughed. "I totally get not really wanting to talk to me when we first met. I have a... weird effect on people," Alea checked to make sure that the microphones weren't transmitting her words, "it's... well, if you promise not to tell, I'll let you in on a little secret."

Syntheia nodded eagerly.

"It's my semblance," Alea said with a shy smile that turned into a smirk. "It makes me be interpreted by people... weirdly."

"No, no, it's my fault," Syntheia said to Alea, shaking her head. "I had some... preconceived thoughts about you from your... it doesn't matter. You're not the airhead I thought you were."

"Thanks," Alea said, shaking her head and laughing.

"No, I mean... I mean that I'm sorry, and you're definitely more impressive than I thought you were, and you definitely deserve to go onto the next round."

Alea beamed at her.

"Aw, thanks! Maybe we can spar again sometime, and you can finally get the chance to show up the annoying airhead popular girl," Alea said playfully, punching her gently in the shoulder.

Syntheia gave Alea a small smile.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

Alea beamed back at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took forever to get out, but I really had trouble figuring out a cool fight...
> 
> Hope this was worth the fight!!!


	30. Afterwards

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay but like... I'm tired of lying.
> 
> Alea is the female equivalent of a himbo and I will NOT take constructive criticism.

Alea grinned in excitement as she walked out of the arena, wrapping an arm around Lexey's shoulders to pull her closer. In truth, Lexey had moved to her side, trying to hold her upright.

Alea knew that her Aura had taken a big beating during her fight against Syntheia, and Lexey wanted to make sure that Alea didn't get hurt.

Alea gave Syntheia a grin as her team came to take her as well, and the other girl smiled back. Alea let out a happy sigh at the sight. She loved when she was able to make people finally cave and like her.

She always wanted to say "ha! See?! I'm not **horrible**! I grew on you! Like _mold_!"

Ivy glanced at her with a raised eyebrow, clearly sensing her thoughts.

Alea met her gaze and the two burst out laughing.

Their friends gave them odd looks before they started to make their way back to their seats to watch the final few matches of the evening.

Before they could make it, the same reporter appeared. Alea jumped at the woman's presence, and Ivy stepped forward, glaring darkly.

"What do you want now?"

"Alea Ajax, the people want to know how you defeated Syntheia without your semblance!"

Alea glanced over her shoulder for a quick moment, finding that her former opponent, and perhaps new friend, was watching her intently.

Alea faced the camera again, sighing quietly to herself.

Ivy raised an eyebrow, watching her, and Alea nodded just slightly before she put on her best smirk.

"How did I beat her?" Alea tried to look as smug as she possibly could, and it obviously worked. "Well, I think Nora covered it earlier."

Alea leaned forward conspiratorially and the camera zoomed in on her.

"I'm pretty awesome," Alea said, winking at the camera in front of her.

Stacey rolled her eyes while Terresa cheered. Lexey and Ivy were laughing, the rest of team ORIN watching Alea with confused expressions.

"Thank you for giving her another chance to brag," Stacey said with a huff. "Like she needs one."

"Hey! I'll have you know that I'm very humble," Alea replied, smirking.

"Oh, yes, the most humble of all living beings, bow down before your humbleness," Rachel said sarcastically.

"That's right!" Alea replied, reaching one hand up and fixing her jacket, which had become a bit ruffled during her fight.

Ivy rolled her eyes at the others, reaching out to grab Alea's hand and tugging her away.

Ivy didn't say a word, but she glared at the reporter when she tried to stop Alea.

"Thanks, Ives," she whispered, leaning over against her side as Ivy opened the door to the watching room that team RWBY had told them to meet them at.

The door swung open, and Alea's Aura alerted her of an oncoming attack. Her hands snapped to her sword, already thinking about team RWBY's children. Were they alright? Was there an attack in the room?!

Ivy had also grabbed her own weapon, and it was half way out of its sheath before Alea was tackled by four wiggling forms.

She stumbled backward, knocking against the wall but barely stopping herself from hitting the ground.

Alea's first thought was, admittedly, one of the stupidest things she had ever thought before in her life.

_What?! Since when were team RWBY's kids big enough to do this?!_

It didn't take her long to realize who it **really** was that was clutching her, and when she did, she broke into a wide grin.

"Ally!" four voices cried, looking up at their big sister in excitement.

Alea wrapped her arms around the four of siblings, dropping her broad sword and ignoring it as it fell to the ground (Ivy dove forward, sliding against the ground to catch it before it could clatter against the ground and upset Adolpha, who lay in her stroller a few feet away).

Alea lifted her siblings into the air, laughing in her enthusiasm as she pushed herself off of the wall, twirling in a circle with them all in her grasp.

"Oh my dust!" she hissed enthusiastically. "I can't believe you're **here**!" Alea set them down, beaming at them for a moment before her smile faltered to a frown. "Wait... what **are** you doing here?"

"What do you mean what are we doing here?!" Alexis cried incredulously. "It's your big day! We got to see you fight!"

"And it was **awesome**!" Andrew cheered in excitement. "You were all like," Andrew pulled back and made an explosion motion with his hands, "BOOM! And she was all like _agghhh_! And then you went **POW POW POW**!" he mimed shooting with Alea's gun before swinging her sword.

Alea laughed and shook her head.

"It wasn't that big of a deal, guys," she said.

"Yes it was!" Anthony cried. He had already crawled up her back and was clutching onto her shoulders, clearly trying to get a piggy back ride out of his oldest sister. She let him get away with it, grabbing his leg and holding it steady with one hand, because of two reasons. First, he was the youngest. Second... she could never say no to her little siblings.

Not even Andrea, who had reached that annoying brink of being a teenager where she pretended that she hadn't just ran up to Alea and thrown herself into her arms in excitement. Andrea was now leaning back against the wall with her arms crossed, trying to look disinterested in her family, but she was still staring at her older sister.

"It was pretty impressive, I guess," Andrea said with a shrug, but there was a small smile on her face as she watched her. Andrea looked like she was about to continue, but her gaze flickered to team ORIN and ATLS. "Who are your friends?"

Alea didn't seem to hear her, or perhaps she was purposefully ignoring what she was saying, and was currently laughing as she tried to keep Anthony from pulling at her hair.

"What'd you do to your hair?!" he cried, tugging at it. Alea winced and swatted playfully at his hands.

"Hey! Stop that!" she said. "Don't make me put you down!"

Anthony knew that Alea wouldn't go through with it, so for the time being her pleas were ignored.

"When did you stop wearing it up?!" he whined.

Alea laughed awkwardly, glancing back at her teammates.

"Uh, recently, I guess?" she asked, though nobody, including herself, could tell who it was that she was questioning.

"But I **liked** it when it was down!" Anthony continued, prodding at Alea's head.

Alea rolled her eyes before she reached up and grabbed him by the hips, taking him off of her shoulders and putting him on the ground.

"Well, it's not _about_ how you like my hair, is it?" Alea asked, reaching her hand down and ruffling his hair with her hand.

He giggled at the action, playfully swatting at her hand, but he didn't make contact with her hand.

Alea turned to face Andrea again.

"Oh! Right! These are my teammates! That's Stacey," Stacey had her arms crossed, eyebrow raised as she watched her team leader with the barest hint of a smile, "Terresa," Terresa was leaning against the wall with one hand pressed up against it, but she lifted up one hand to wave at the children with a small grin, "and that's Lexey!" Lexey waved as Alea introduced her, smiling broadly at the children. "Oh! And this is team ORIN! That's Oscar," Oscar awkwardly waved with a nervous smile, "Rachel," Rachel winked back at the kids with a smirk, leaning against Natalie's wings and not seeming to care that her girlfriend was giving her the stink eye, "Natalie," the bat faunus nodded gruffly, but she looked slightly awkward as she did so, and Rachel snickered, causing Natalie to bump her with her wings, "and that's Ivy! She's my best friend, actually. She might seem a bit weird at first, but I swear she's the _best_!" Alea said.

Ivy was not even looking at Alea's siblings, her gaze instead focused on the ground as she waved at the children.

Alea grinned at the interaction.

"So which one's your girlfriend?" Andrea asked immediately, a smirk on her face as she watched Alea.

Alea winced as Anthony, Alexis, and Andrew let out a loud "ooooh!" together.

"I bet it's that one!" Anthony pointed at Ivy, who's eyes cleared and met Alea's own with a slightly frustrated look on her face.

"No! Why does everyone think you two are dating?!" Rachel cried, throwing up her arms in frustration and rolling her eyes. "No! She's not dating Ivy!"

"Then it's you?" Andrea asked, raising an eyebrow.

Alea rolled her eyes.

"Oh, please!" Rachel scoffed. "Definitely not me. Did you four even watch the news?"

"Why would we watch the news when we were here?" Andrea pointed out skepitcally.

Alea sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"It's a long story. But... we need to keep it down before we watch up Dolphie," Alea said. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Blake was holding the baby faunus, rocking her back and forth. Alea almost burst out laughing when she saw that Adolpha was wearing little baby earmuffs. She looked adorable.

Alea was about to take a seat, but she was interrupted by her mother racing forward and pulling her in for a hug.

"Oh, you did so well!" Alicia cried, reaching one hand up and running it through Alea's hair in a loving way that only mothers could.

Alea flushed silently, smiling down at her mother excitedly.

"Thank, mom," she muttered, trying to ignore that all of team ORIN and ATLS were watching her.

The next half hour was awkward and filled with Alea trying to explain to her family that, no, only team ORIN and ATLS were students and that, yes, those were actually teachers, not other children at the school.

Yes, she was dating her whole team. No, she hadn't relied solely on her charm to make them fall for her. Yes, she had a semblance (her whole family had cheered in excitement for that, even Andrea, though she soon after pretended that she hadn't, making Alea laugh). Yes, she **had** made a friend that wasn't secretly trying to seduce her (Ivy had laughed for a solid five minutes at that question, making Alea glare at her in an attempt to make her shut up). Yes, she **was** holding a baby.

Yes, she _was_ a babysitter for her teachers and _had_ moved into their house with her teammates along with Ivy's.

(Her mother had leaned over to ask Alea if she needed to call the police because they were kidnapped, and Alea had assured that they were all fine).

The worst part, however, had to be how often Alea's siblings tried to embarrass her in front of her girlfriends and friends.

"Why are you all dating Alea?" Andrea asked, eyes lacking remorse even as Alea glared at him.

"Because we love her?" Lexey said, though it sounded like a question as she glanced at all of her girlfriends.

"Yeah," Terresa agreed, raising an eyebrow and staring at Alea's sister with a small frown on her face.

Alea had on a disappointed and embarrassed look on her face as she watched her family and friends/girlfriends interact.

"Yeah, but...," Andrea glanced at Alea, and then her girlfriends, "you're all, like... way out of her league."

Lexey had been taking a drink of water, and she spit it out as she started to laugh, coughing as she toppled over to the side and fell against Terresa. Terresa wrapped an arm around her and laughed as well, snorting as the two almost fell onto the floor. Stacey had completely lost her composure, staring at Alea's sister with her mouth agape, eyes wide.

Alea glared at her sister.

"Ex... excuse me," Stacey said, taking a deep breath and stared at Andrea, "I think that I misheard you. Because I thought you just said.... Alea was somehow in a league below us."

Andrea stared at Stacey, nodding.

Stacey glanced at Lexey and Terresa before all three launched into a detailed explanation of how they fell for Alea.

By the end, everyone in the room was laughing, except Alea, was laughing so hard that they were crying.

"And then," Terresa took a moment to laugh, "she said 'you three are... my **best friends**!"

Alea blushed.

"She did _not_!" Rachel cried.

"W-well-"

Alea didn't get the chance to continue what she was saying.

"She did!" Lexey cried. "I remember that! Oh, Terresa looked like she was about to cause an **earthquake**! And Stacey? Stacey fell onto her bed bonelessly and Alea said 'Is something wrong?'"

Stacey was laughing now, and Alea didn't have the heart to make her stop, considering how little Stacey laughed. She looked so adorable doing it, though. Alea also refrained from saying **that** because Stacey would definitely get upset at her for mentioning it.

"Oh my dust! And then I said 'there's this girl I know that is just completely blind to the most basic social cues.' Alea then said... 'oh my dust that sounds like me, maybe you should introduce us sometime.'"

There was more laughter from the other people in the room, and Alea shifted awkwardly.

"Can... can we talk about something else, please?" Alea all but begged.

"Ah, but this is the funniest thing I've heard in **months**!" Alea's mother, Alicia, told her.

Alea blushed and shook her head.

"How about we talk about the _rest_ of school?"

Alea took a few minutes of trial and error before she was able to shift the conversation.

She learned that her family was going to be leaving the day after tomorrow, but they wanted to be there to watch Alea in her final two matches.

Alea was honestly horrified at what might happen in that day's time.


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a little while since I focused on team RWBY and children, so I decided to write this one!

Blake wasn't sure when the last time she'd slept was at this point. Perhaps she had had a nap at some point during the tournament earlier that day, or maybe she'd slept the night before... no, she thought that she had had the night shift with Yang the night before.

Or perhaps that had been the night before? Or maybe Blake had had a shift with Weiss the night before last?

Blake decided that she didn't want to think about it any longer, and she focused on her current predicament.

No matter who had slept last night and who had had the night shift, Blake and all three of her wives were awake and staying in the nursery at the moment.

This was a rare occurrence, and they hadn't done this since the first few weeks of their children's lives, finding out soon after that they couldn't do this whole parenting thing if none of them got any sleep the entire time, so they'd quickly broken into alternating pairs for this thing.

But they were all awake and watching the children together because they were worried about Auburn. He had been puking more than usual all day, and that could be because of nerves, or it could be because he was sick.

Either way, the four were all staying up together for the night, which meant that they were all responsible for keeping each other awake.

Yang had finally convinced Weiss to let her and Blake have caffeine recently, so the two were both leaning against the wall, drinking coffee and tea respectively.

Weiss was still a little bit upset about them having caffeine when she herself couldn't, so she was watching them from across the room with her arms crossed against her chest.

Blake rolled her eyes at the former heiress, leaning over to put her head against Yang's shoulder with a small sigh.

"You alright?" Yang muttered.

Blake nodded, sighing again and shaking her head as she watched Auburn laying in his crib, still asleep.

The faunus had been overly worried about their son and youngest child.

Yang pulled Blake closer, setting the cat faunus' head on her shoulder with a small smile.

"He's going to be fine, Blake. Seriously, you don't need to worry."

"If he's going to be fine, then why are we all down here?" Blake asked.

"Because we're great parents that are going to drop everything in their lives to take care of their children on a regular basis, even if they can't tell that anything's wrong," Yang replied.

Blake raised an eyebrow, wondering if the blond had set up the conversation on purpose to get to say that.

Yang's smug smirk said that she had, but Blake's knowledge of Yang said otherwise, so she decided not to mention that fact at the moment.

"I know, it's just..."

"I know," Yang replied, pulling Blake closer to herself and placing a small kiss on top of her head. "We've never had one of our children be _actually_ sick before, so... it can be nerve wracking. But we'll get through it. And we'll get through the next however many years of flues and allergies and whatever else comes our way," Yang said.

"But no puking," Weiss said from the other side of the room. "Once he's old enough to clean up his own throw up, I'm never cleaning up after Auburn's puke."

"Really?" Ruby asked, giving Weiss a small grin. She reached down and ran a hand gently against Auburn's head. "I think that there's absolutely no chance that any of us could ever say no to this face."

Weiss leaned closer and looked down at Auburn with a fond smile. She put her face close to the child's face. She cradled his head with her hand.

"No."

"Did you really just say no to that face?!" Ruby hissed.

"I did. Watch. I'll do it again," Weiss leaned closer to the child. "No."

Ruby gasped quietly, putting a hand to her chest.

"Oh my dust! You're heartless!" she whispered.

Weiss smirked at her, and Blake used the opportunity to step closer and try to repair the damage that her getting to have caffeine had caused.

Blake smirked at Ruby and wrapped her arms around Weiss' waist.

"I think we have some real proof that Weiss has a heart," the cat faunus said.

"Her pulse?" Ruby asked, her head tilting to the side a bit with an almost confused look on her face.

"Well, yes, I suppose," Blake said, smirking in a slightly smug manner as she leaned closer to Weiss, slowly turning the former heiress around in her grasp, "but I was talking about something else."

Weiss had her eyebrow raised as she looked up at Blake in an almost distrusting manner.

Blake leaned down and connected their lips, pulling Weiss closer.

Behind Weiss, Ruby's eyes widened when she suddenly realized what Blake had meant.

When the cat faunus pulled back, Weiss stared up at her with a slightly dazed look in her eyes, smiling gently at Blake.

"That look _definitely_ couldn't come from someone heartless," Blake said definitively.

Weiss flushed slightly and put her head on Blake's shoulder for a moment before-

Weiss pulled back, eyes wide.

"Wait a minute!" she hissed. "You're trying to get me to forgive you!"

"Can you blame me? Who would want you to be mad at them?" Blake asked.

Weiss glared at her.

Three, two, one-

"What? Because I'm irrational?" Weiss had an almost playful look in her eyes, and Blake could tell that she was warming up to her again.

"No. Because you're one of the three best people I know," Blake said almost immediately.

Weiss flushed jut a bit, pulling closer to her.

"That's totally unfair!" Yang hissed from where she stood. "You can't forgive her because of some fancy words but still be upset with me!"

Weiss smirked as she put her head on Blake's chest, staring back at Yang.

"I can't? Because it seems like I just did," the former heiress said as she got comfortable in Blake's arms, looking down at the crib that held Auburn.

Yang threw up her arms into the air.

"Unbelievable."

Weiss yawned, shaking her head with a small smile on her face.

"Fine," she said. "You're forgiven, or whatever."

Yang grinned and walked over, grabbing both Weiss and Blake in her arms and pulling them closer.

Ruby grinned and let herself fall against the other three with an excited expression on her face.

"Glad to see we're giving Auburn the attention he needs," Weiss said, rolling her eyes.

"We're watching him," Ruby said.

" **And** we're distracting Blake too," Yang pointed out.

"You were," Blake said with a small sigh and a shake of her head, "until you pointed out that that was what you were doing."

"Right, we should probably find another way to distract you then," Yang said.

"Our children are _right there,_ Yang," Weiss pointed out with a small eye roll.

"I don't know what _you're_ talking about, Weiss," Yang said with a small smirk on her face, "because **I** was referring to _talking_ about our fears and insecurities so that we can work through this."

"That's not a distraction," Blake said while Weiss scoffed at the blond's words.

"But isn't it? You're distracted, aren't you?" Yang asked smugly.

"Well, I mean... I **was** , but then you went and ruined it by pointing it out again, Yang," Blake said.

But Yang could tell that Blake was noticeably happier now than she had been. Her gaze flickered to Auburn remarkably less than before, she had on a small smile, and she was still noticeably relaxed as she was held by her wives.

Weiss might be the skeptical one that kept them all from doing anything _too_ stupid or dangerous. Ruby might be the sweet and innocent one that kept them all from doing anything too bad. And Blake might even be the worrier that kept them in line...

But Yang was the distraction... which, now that she was thinking about it, it sounded a bit bad, but what she meant was that... Blake and Weiss had the tendency to get lost in their own heads and overwhelmed by their own thoughts.

Yang was the distraction, and she brought Weiss and Blake out from their own heads.

Sometimes, Blake and Weiss disregarded her comments as stupid or unnecessary that didn't contribute to the matter at hand, but whatever Yang said always had a purpose. To distract her wives from their worries and let them have a moment of laughter or even just a bit of loving irritation (usually from Weiss when Yang said something odd).

They needed to have someone there for them to make sure that they didn't push themselves too hard, no matter what the situation might be.

If you asked Yang, she'd proudly tell you that she was an underappreciated member of this relationship.

She might not be the type of romantic that Blake was, but she definitely knew how to make her wives smile.

And honestly, at the end of the day, that was one of the only things that truly mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been thinking (yes, that can actually happen), and I had the (horribly) amazing idea to...
> 
> maybe do a short chapter (probably no more than 500 words) that include the children at maybe... 7 years old? Something like that just to let you see the personalities (not semblances and stuff) and let you connect to the characters more. What do you guys think?


	32. Alright

"Hey! Drop it!" Yang called. There was chewing. "I said drop it, Aella!"

Aella glanced down at her mother with a mischievous smirk on her face. She was currently seated on top of the refrigerator, holding the cookie jar in one hand while she shoved cookies into her mouth.

"Dust, Yang! I thought we hid that better this time!" Weiss cried, grabbing a broom and brandishing it at Aella, who swatted at it with a laugh.

"I say we just get rid of it. No sweets for those that don't deserve it," Blake replied, not looking up from her tea.

"We can't get rid of the cookies!" Ruby cried, looking distraught and slightly betrayed.

"Why not?" Blake asked.

"Because they're delicious!" Ruby replied.

"Right answer, Mom!" Aella called, dipping her hand into the cookie jar and grabbing one, which she threw at Ruby.

Ruby caught it with a grin, shoving into her mouth before Yang could make her drop it.

"Is she doing it again?" Adolpha asked as she walked into the room.

"You know it!" Aella called. She chucked a cookie at Adolpha, who caught it without looking in her direction.

"Can you all be quiet? I haven't have my coffee yet," Crystal muttered as she tiredly shuffled into the kitchen.

"I still think you're too young for coffee," Blake muttered.

Crystal poured herself a large cup.

"Twelve isn't too young for coffee, mother," she said.

"Sure it isn't," Jin said, giving Adolpha a small grin, "that's why you're _so_ tall."

Crystal stared up at her sister, glaring darkly.

"Shut up, gigantor," she growled, gesturing threateningly at her with her cup of coffee.

"Don't say shut up," Blake called.

"You say it!" Crystal cried.

"Yes, but I'm an adult, and your mother, which means that different rules apply to me, so either don't say shut up or have your coffee taken away," Blake responded.

Crystal's eyes widened and she subconsciously pulled her mug closer to her body.

"Haha!" Aella called as she continued to sit on the fridge, trying to avoid Weiss and Yang trying to pull her down.

"On your right," Adolpha called, not looking up from her bowl of cereal.

Aella threw up her arm to block a strike from the broom from Weiss.

"Thanks, Dolph!"

Adolpha nodded her head, reaching one hand out and putting it on Jin's stomach.

Jin glanced at her, frowning.

"Don't trip," Adolpha muttered, gesturing vaguely at a toy that Akio had left on the ground.

"Thanks," Jin said with a small smile, reaching her foot down to kick the toy into her hand.

"He's gonna be looking for that," Crystal said, fixing her hair. It was exceedingly frizzy from sleep, and Aella had been heckling her about it for the past minute.

"He probably already is," Jin said.

"Has anyone seen my-"

Akio took a step back as he walked into the room, catching his toy against his chest.

"Thanks, Jin!" he called. He walked toward the fridge to get something to eat, but hesitated as he watched the scene playing out in front of him.

Weiss had successfully climbed up the fridge some, and Aella was losing ground against her parents as she stood on top of the fridge, almost hitting her head.

Adolpha sighed and pushed herself to her feet.

"Just take a seat, Kio," she said, walking toward the refrigerator.

She ducked as an elbow came flying over her head, reaching toward the door. As she opened it, Weiss let out a cry of shock, being pushed out to the side with the door.

Adolpha ignored that, ducking again as the broom soared just over her head.

She grabbed the milk and tossed it toward Akio, glancing up at Aella.

Aella gave her a mischevious smirk before she leapt off the fridge, spreading her arms and legs so that her gliders appeared. She soared overhead-

Blake reached one hand up and grabbed Aella by the arm, tugging her just slightly.

"AHH!" Aella cried, her gliders retracting as she dropped down, landing on Blake.

Blake plucked the cookie jar from her hands and tossed it at Ruby, who grinned before racing out of the room, via the use of her semblance, to hide it somewhere new.

"Aww," Aella said, crossing her arms. "You guys never let me have any fun."

Her parents scoffed.

"Uncle Sun would have let me have it."

"Uncle Sun is also a pushover and **not** your father," Blake replied.

Lavey, who had snuck into the room just a moment ago during the chaos, started to snicker.

"Oh, she **definitely** knows that," she said suggestively, giving her sister a smirk.

Aella glared at her darkly while Blake watched the pair with narrowed eyes.

"Speaking of," Yang didn't seem to notice the awkwardness and continued to act normally, "The Nikos want a sleepover."

"At our place?" Weiss asked, dropping down to the ground and wiping at her clothes while glaring at Aella, probably considering her punishment.

Aella was seated at the table now, but she wasn't paying attention to Weiss, grinning in excitement.

"Yeah," Yang said.

Weiss scoffed.

"Of course they want a sleepover, then! They just want to unload their kids on us again!" Weiss said. "And I'm not going to take care of Clover again. He's a handful."

"But there was a sleepover at theirs last week," Yang reminded her.

Weiss sighed.

"Fine. Fine! Blake, what do you think?"

The cat faunus shrugged.

"We already watch seven kids, why not a few more?"

They agreed and conversation moved onto Aella's stunt with the cookies, though that was a common occurrence, until Auburn walked into the room, stretching and yawning. His eyes closed as he took a step forward, meaning that he couldn't see Crystal's tail, which was set on the floor behind her chaor.

He stepped on it, and Crystal cursed, scrambling to pull her tail out from under her brother's bare feet.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" she snapped, her tail now curled up around her waist defensively.

"Sorry, Cy," he muttered, walking over to the sink. He put down the sink stopper and turned on the water, letting it fill the sink. When it was done, Auburn let his head be fully submerged, gills appearing.

"It's so creepy when he does that," Aella muttered.

"Says the girl that has gliders that appear at random," Crystal replied.

"Says the girl with a kitty cat tail," Aella said.

"It's a snow leopard and you **know** that!"

"Guys," Adolpha shut her eyes and rubbed at her temple, ears twitching, "can you please keep it down?"

Jin leaned over to her with a concerned look in her eyes.

"Another headache?"

Adolpha nodded.

"Ears or...?"

"Both. I just need a minute," Adolpha replied, continuing to rub at her face with her eyes squeezed shut.

Crystal glared at Aella, smacking her arm.

"Look!" she hissed. "You upset Adolpha again!"

"It's not my fault!" Aella hissed back. "If anything, it's yours!"

Auburn finally pulled his head out of the water, letting it drain down the sink. He shook his head, water flying everywhere.

"Auburn, what did I tell you about that?!" Weiss hissed.

Auburn sighed, grabbing a towel by the sink.

"Use the towel," he said in a monotone voice. He glanced around the room, finding it unnaturally quiet. "Is she having another one?"

Jin nodded.

There was a few moments of silence before Adolpha opened her eyes, the gray color seeming more filled with life than they had for the rest of the morning.

"Alright. Sorry, guys," she said.

Crystal shrugged.

"Eh, Aella gives me headaches too."

Lavey snorted at the words, pounding her fist against the table.

Weiss' eyes widened and she hurried to her daughter's side, catching her arm.

"Hey! We can't afford you breaking another table!" Weiss cried.

Lavey grimaced.

"Hey, last time wasn't completely my fault."

"You literally broke it," Weiss said, eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, but only because Aella was messing with me!" Lavey defended.

"All she did was ask if you thought you could break the table," Akio said.

Aella was smirking.

"Of course she could break the table, Ally!" Crystal said, throwing her arms up in frustration. "She's done it on multiple occasions with multiple tables!"

"I was just asking!" Aella defended with a smirk.

"To be fair, you _were_ egging her on," Jin said.

"You too?! Jeez, Jin, I thought you were on my side," Aella said with a betrayed look on her face.

"What gave you that idea?" Jin asked, raising her eyebrow.

"You're the loyal one!" Aella cried.

Jin let out a laugh, shaking her head.

"You did **what**?!" Weiss growled.

Auburn burst out laughing as Aella started to consider running out of the kitchen.

Weiss sighed, shaking her head in frustration.

"Wait!" Adolpha cried, shocking her entire family at her loud noise, slamming her hand on the table. "Aren't Aunt Alea and Ivy coming over today?!"

Blake rolled her eyes.

"Yes, they are. You _know_ they are, because they come over all the time. They're watching you tonight so we can have date night," the cat faunus said.

Auburn made a face at the words "date night," like he always did.

Adolpha grinned in excitement, leaning back in her chair just a bit.

"Not to mention their wives are coming over, but I'm pretty sure you don't care about that," Weiss said with an eye roll.

Adolpha waved her hand dismissively, but Aella grinned.

"Aunt Nat's coming?!"

"Oh dust," Yang muttered. "You two better not go flying again. You know what happened last time."

"Last time was **awesome**!" Aella cheered.

"You almost died," Crystal muttered.

"Exactly!"

Crystal shook her head, mumbling something insulting into her cup of coffee that only Adolpha and Blake could hear.

Blake glared at her, and Crystal quickly averted her gaze.

"Hey, mom?" Adolpha asked. "Can I go to the park today?"

"Is it to see Romy?" Jin asked with a smirk.

Adolpha rolled her eyes.

"No."

"Then you won't mind if we come with?" Aella asked, grinning.

"You can if you want to," Adolpha said slowly.

"Why would you want to meet up with the Soleil kid?" Yang asked, eyes narrowed.

"I don't," Adolpha replied.

"Lies!" Aella cried. Adolpha kicked her under the table.

"At least it's not Romelle," Weiss muttered.

"Can you even tell the difference? They're identical!" Ruby cried.

"They're both horrible influences," Blake muttered.

"Aella literally lives in this house and you're worried about Aunt Neo's kids being bad influences?" Lavey asked with a smirk.

Weiss laughed, but she tried to stop herself. Aella threw her arms up into the air in frustration.

"What is today?! Make fun of Aella day?!"

Akio rummaged through his pockets, pulling out a tiny pocket calendar, because of **course** her nerdy brother would have one of those.

He flipped through the papers while the rest of the Belladonna-Schnees watched him.

He finally showed the calendar.

"Yes, actually."

On today's date, _Official Make Fun Of Aella Sun Belladonna-Schnee Day_ was written on it.

There was a moment of silence.

"HOW IN THE NAME OF DUST DID YOU ALREADY HAVE THAT WRITTEN?!" Aella cried.

"Because it's official make fun of Aella Sun Belladonna-Schnee day. It's been written in the calendars all over the house for months," Akio said.

Another moment of silence.

"Do you not look at my calendars? They're all over the house! There's one in every bedroom, one in the living room... there's one right there!" he cried, gesturing at the kitchen wall.

"To be fair, almost nobody looks at them," Aella said.

"That's not true!" Akio said, glancing at his parents and siblings.

None of them looked back at him.

"I look at it," Adolpha offered. "That's how I figured out that Alea and Ivy were coming over."

Akio sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Why do I even try?" he asked.

"Honestly?" Lavey questioned. "I don't really know."

As the family continued to playfully bicker, Yang watched with a small, fond smile on her face.

This was always how it was with them, and despite the years that had passed, she still found herself enjoying the predictable pattern of unpredictability, and she was sure that she would for years to come.

-

Ivy's eyes opened, and she sat up slowly in bed, running a hand through her hair.

The dream had been weird, and it was already slipping from her grasp, but she knew that it was real. Or, well, that one day it would be real. Or perhaps it had already been real, was real, and would be real. Ivy sometimes couldn't tell when the future and the past collided with each other in her brain, causing her to lose track of what was happening.

How old was she? Had she gone to Beacon yet? Had she met her girlfriends? Wait, she had girlfriends? She'd gone to Beacon? That didn't make sense...

A form shifted beside her in the bed, reaching up and setting their hand on her leg.

"Ives, you alright?" Alea muttered.

Ivy returned to the present with a _snap_.

She looked around the room quickly. On another bed, Oscar, Rachel, and Stacey all slept together. On the one beside them, Natalie was sandwiched between Lexey and Terresa. Because it was weird, the two teams had separated themselves into groups that weren't dating, mostly because Oscar had felt so weird about it.

"Ives?" Alea questioned, starting to push herself to a sitting position.

Ivy turned her attention back to her with a small smile, laying down against beside Alea and pulling closer to her. She took comfort in the rhythmic beating of her heart.

"I'm alright."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. And I'm pretty sure that we're all going to be for a long while."

Alea laughed tiredly, pulling Ivy closer to her and encasing her in her embrace.

"Of course we are. Now get some sleep, huh?"

Ivy nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Confirmed that this IS the future that Ivy saw, in case someone wanted to argue.


	33. Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I never really demand or even expect people to read the notes because, hey, I'm boring when I'm not writing about your favorite characters doing whatever they're doing in the current chapter, I get it!
> 
> But this time you really should read it. Please.
> 
> So the point of this note at the end is just to say... this fic has always prided itself on surprises. If you weren't here when I first started, just know that I dropped a 40k fic all in one day with NO warning, first fic I'd ever done for this fandom. And then we have these surprise rare pairs, surprise number of children for the characters, even a surprise pregnancy for lesbians (Winter and Penny... that was SO FUN TO WRITE OH MY GOSH).
> 
> What I'm trying to say is, I do a lot of surprises, and people seem rather nervous that I might randomly stop this fic soon.
> 
> That is NOT the plan, nor will it ever be. I will give FAIR WARNING before this fic ends, which I suppose it will eventually, but definitely not soon, and I plan to take this as far as I myself and readers enjoy! So go ahead and sleep with ease, rest thine weary head with the calming notion that I shalt not leave thy high and dry with no pollination and rare pairs.
> 
> ANNNND I'm out ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also warning (SERIOUSLY READ THIS BEFORE YOU CHECK OUT THE CHAPTER): This chapter has a lot of in depth analysis of Ivy as a character, and maybe if you don't like talking about panic attacks that are realistic (based off of real life experiences and phobias, yes, phobias as in plural), then DO NOT read this one, because Ivy... poor baby girl...
> 
> They're usually less intense than this one, but... sorry, it was necessary for the story.

Ivy didn't like water.

That seemed irrevelant, didn't it? Perhaps not the best way to start this, but this fact was important none the less, and Ivy wanted it to be known to anyone and everyone.

Since she was a little girl she had, in fact, hated water. She'd been about five years old when her mother had tried to take her swimming for the first time, and Ivy had burst out crying as soon as her foot was submerged. Ivy's mother had encouraged her to continue her attempt, at this time still not understanding why Ivy had such a violent reaction to it.

Ivy had been up to her chest when she'd started having her first panic attack.

_/_

_"It's cold! It's so cold!" Ivy had cried, clutching her mother, who emanated with warmth and comfort._

_Ivy's mother, Irene, had attempted to get Ivy to try again once the pool was warmer, but Ivy had had the same complaints._

_"It's cold! It's so cold!"_

_Irene had taken Ivy out of the pool and gently asked why it was cold, considering she herself thought that it was almost burning hot, perhaps just a degree away from being too much so for them to be submerged into it._

_Ivy had shook back and forth, still clutching her mother with her tiny arms, clinging to what was warm and real._

_"It's empty. It's... it's so empty! So cold and lifeless..."  
_

_Ivy's mother and father had both taken her to a therapist afterwards, trying to figure out what was wrong with Ivy. But that story was, perhaps, for another day._

_Or maybe it's a story that should never be shared, because it's one of frustration and confusion, one that, like this pool story, should only be shared if the situation called for it, if the story had a reason to be shared. Because that's the only reason that they ever were, wasn't it? Every story had a purpose, a meaning that was meant to be conveyed, even if, perhaps, the storyteller themselves doesn't know what that is._

_/_

Suffice it to say, Ivy did not enjoy water.

In fact, she would go out on a ledge (provided one that wasn't over water), and say that she **hated** that specific liquid with a (ironically) burning passion.

All of this was an obviously long winded way of saying that Ivy disliked water, and, as all stories do, this one had a point.

Ivy stepped out onto the platform with a small, creepy grin on her face. She knew that she was supposed to be acting horrifying still, despite how much it made her skin crawl, and she was more than willing to do it for her teammates.

Ivy was introduced by Nora, but she didn't listen to it, too focused on feeling to cobblestone platform under her feet. It moved and swayed with intrinsic patterns, but these were being amplified by the crowed stadium, but she tried not to think about that. Crowds _really_ were not her strong suit, and in fact, they were right up there with water on her list of things that she did **not** enjoy. It turns out that today was filled with a _lot_ of things that she didn't find particularly fun.

"And coming in on the left hand side," Ivy forced herself to pay attention to Nora's words now, "is team SSSN's new team leader, Selene! Just like Ivy, she herself has not revealed her semblance, and she has _not_ had to use it to get this far, even in her previous match! Will she be able to continue this streak against Ivy Hanson, or will she have to break out her secret weapon?!"

Ivy cracked her knuckles and watched Selene, not drawing her weapons. Ivy hated to admit it, but when she saw that her opponent had done the same, she was unnerved.

"I figured it out, Ivy."

Her skin crawled at the drawled voice, her eyes flickering to the stands and finding her girlfriends watching her.

"Figured what out, Selene?"

"Your semblance."

Ivy hesitated.

"That's funny, because I don't think even **I** have figured it out completely, so do tell."

"You can," Selene smirked at Ivy, " **sense** things."

Ivy stopped in her tracks, eyes wide as she hesitated.

"So can everyone else. We've got five of them for a reason."

"No, Ivy. You _specifically_ can sense some _very_ interesting things."

Ivy shifted tactics immediately, knowing that Selene had actually figured out.

Nora had stopped in her tracks, listening to the two speak over the microphone system. So was everyone else in the stadium.

"I _can_ sense things," she said lowly. "I can sense that your heart is racing," Ivy took a step forward, "and that every step I take closer to you," another step, "makes it beat faster. I can sense that you're planning something. And I can guarantee that the moment this match starts," Ivy finally met her gaze, smirking, "I'll know exactly what your semblance is."

Selene laughed, and Ivy was surprised to sense that it wasn't forced.

"Oh, I'm sure you will, because I intend for you to."

Nora seemed to remember the match right then, perhaps because they had mentioned it verbatim, and spoke up.

"The match will begin in three," Ivy stood still in the middle of the platform, watching her opponent, "two," Selene smirked back at her, "one," Nora breathed.

Ivy saw her opponent's eyes start to glow gray, and Ivy felt her pulse race.

She knew what was happening a moment before it did.

Ivy scrambled backward for the brief moment, eyes wide and filled with absolute terror.

Water slammed against her, throwing her backward.

There were many things that Ivy could have done to stop what happened next. She could have used her weapon, in sword form, and slammed it against the cobblestone to slow herself down. She could have tried to swim upstream. She could have thrown herself to the side, though she was sure that wouldn't have worked for long. She could have screamed. She could have done so many things, and yet she didn't.

All Ivy could do was be thrown off the end of the platform, eliminating her from the tournament immediately.

It took only a couple moments for the people watching, but to Ivy it felt like an eternity.

The water engulfed and surrounded her, throwing her backward. She tumbled to and fro, unable to sense anything but the encroaching dread that filled her. Her mouth was open, gasping for air not just because it could sustain the human body, but because she was searching for something, anything, tangible that she could sense.

Water was her enemy. Despite how often she had been compared to flowing water by her teammates, she couldn't be further from it.

Despite water sustaining life, it wasn't a living thing. Ivy moved not like flowing water, but perhaps like a tree that blew in the wind. Not water.

It was thick and it moved to cover everything, wanting to endoctrine everything into its cult of water just so that it could flow more and more to absorb more and more.

It made her feel as if her senses had suddenly been ripped from her. It would have been no different if Ivy had suddenly gone blind.

It was somehow worse than her losing her Aura, considering she could still sense **something** , and that something was _water_. It had nothing inside of it. No smells, no memories, no **nothing**. Ivy was submerged in a pool of **nothing** that encroached her from every angle, coating her in a sense of deadly stillness that wanted to absorb her as well.

When she hit the ground, the pain was a welcome relief. It was **something** , _anything_ that she could hold onto in her moment of absolute terror. It was real, solid, and she absorbed its senses. She could feel the people in the stadium that were watching her, could feel the victor of the match standing on the platform, could feel **something**.

Finally, Ivy seemed to be able to function, and she began to cry.

The tears on her cheeks only served as a reminder of the water that had engulfed her, and Ivy clawed at her face, trying to remove them. She curled up in a ball, wanting to be dry but too scared to move, too scared of losing the stone under her feet that was so warm and welcoming after she'd been plunged into the ice.

Alea had thrown herself out of her seat as soon as she'd seen the water, racing out of the stands and watching the televisions as she sprinted toward the bottom of the arena. She knew that Ivy would panic, had known the moment that she'd seen the water.

Ivy's panicked expression was the last thing on the television that was seen before she was thrown off.

There was confusion from the crowd, everyone clearly wondering why Ivy hadn't twirled out of the way like usual.

The cameras angled to focus on Selene, who had a victorious grin as she started to cheer.

Alea growled at the action, vaulting over a security fence and letting herself fly off of the edge so that she landed at the front row seats.

She didn't hesitate before she leapt off of the final fence, flying toward the ground. Her feet **slammed** against the ground, and she stumbled slightly, but she didn't let it slow her down. She skidded to a stop as she reached Ivy.

Alea knew what would happen the moment she touched her, the panic attack that she would have to join Ivy in, but she didn't care. She pulled her into an embrace, squeezing her eyes shut as the fear hit her.

After a wheezing breath, Alea's shaking hands reached out, wiping off Ivy's face to remove them of tears. She then reached out and shakily slipped Ivy's jacket off, letting it fall to the ground like a wet rag, leaving Ivy in her undershirt.

Beside Alea, Natalie and Rachel skidded to a stop, having only leapt into action a few moments ago after they'd realized what had happened.

Natalie took off her leather jacket, reaching out and wrapping it around Ivy's shoulders. When her hand grazed Ivy on the way back, her body shook with shock, eyes wide as she fell backward, barely catching herself with her hands.

Ivy was still clutching Alea, panicked breathing setting in.

Rachel smacked Natalie on the leg.

"Nat, your girlfriend hates water and she's wet. You have fire powers. Do the math!" she hissed.

Natalie's eyes widened before she nodded. She shakily reached her hands out, clearly hesitant as she set both on Ivy's legs, warming them.

Natalie took a shaking breath, but she pushed through it.

Rachel seemed to realize that something was going on, so she reached out and put her hand on Ivy's own, taking a shaking breath when the panic hit her.

After a few minutes, Ivy had calmed down enough that Alea slowly stood, pulling her closer to her chest.

"Hey, it's alright, I can get her," Natalie whispered. Alea noticed that she was still trembling from when she had been holding Ivy's legs (even through her pants it had effected the bat faunus).

Alea gave her a smile, though it was difficult with Ivy's thoughts pouring into her.

"I know you **can** , but never send a girlfriend to do a best friend's job. Let's just get her out of here."

Natalie nodded after a moment of thinking.

Ivy was still holding onto Alea's shoulders, which were now bare considering her jacket had fallen off in her race to get to Ivy in time.

They stepped out of the arena bottom, and Alea felt Ivy's heart rate starting to slow, her breathing slowing. She let her eyes open, and she looked up at Alea with a small smile on her face. The team leader could feel just how forced it was. That didn't matter, though. It was good that Ivy was there enough to be trying to comfort her, even if it wasn't going to work at this point.

Alea smiled down at her as well, trying to radiate with calm.

"You feeling better?" she whispered. It was a stupid question. Alea already knew the answer. But it was still smart to ask, at least.

"Some," Ivy whispered.

There was silence for a few minutes before Alea sat them down in the locker room, glad that it was empty aside from the four of them.

"There's one more thing you can do to make me feel better," Ivy whispered.

"And what's that?" Alea asked, smiling down at her.

"Take her out for me."

Alea smirked maliciously. Not because of her semblance, not because other people interpreted it as that. For once she really meant it.

"My pleasure."


	34. Good Luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's something to chew on btw. If Ivy can occasionally see the future (even though she loses the memories almost instantly, and if you're wondering how she does this, just think about the last time you had déjà vu. Just imagine that Ivy is more connected to EVERYTHING, so maybe her déjà vu is REAL)...
> 
> Is it possible that Ivy kind of recognized Ivy from her LITERAL dreams and went for her in the forest so they could be partners? Recognized Alea and then chose her in the library? Just something to consider...

Alea crackled her knuckles, glancing back at her best friend with a slightly nervous look in her eyes.

"Don't worry, Ives, I'm gonna take her down for you."

"I know you are," Ivy said with a small smile.

Alea gave her a grin before she ran a hand through her hair. It had been half an hour since Ivy's fight, and it would be another before Alea had the chance to get her revenge on the woman that had upset her best friend so.

Alea wasn't nervous about the fight, considering team SSSN's leader didn't seem to have any special abilities besides her semblance. Besides, Alea knew what it was now, and her own semblance was still under question. That didn't matter, though, considering Alea had something even greater on her side. She had anger and revenge fueling her. She wasn't used to having **either** of those on her side, considering she was typically a very calm person, but...

This was inexcusable. There was no way that Alea could let this slid without beating the living dust out of her.

The door to the locker room swung open, causing teams ORIN and ATLS to turn around and see who had walked in. They were met by the reporter from before, and Alea side stepped in front of Ivy defensively.

"She really doesn't want to talk, ma'am," Alea said, letting out a sigh as she ran a hand through her hair.

"But the audience really wants to know what happened to Ivy Hanson. Is she alright?"

Alea glanced back at Ivy, seeing that she had already stood and made her way toward the cameras. Alea took a step back, putting her hand on Ivy's back calmingly.

"I... don't like water," Ivy said slowly. She glanced at Alea, and the team leader slipped her hand into hers. Ivy was filled with more confidence and ways she could phrase it. "Selene was right," Ivy muttered. "I can... sense things. It's like a sixth sense that lets me feel almost everything around me. Except water. And... and when I'm surrounded by it...," Ivy trailed off, shivering.

Alea wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer.

"It was a panic attack. The water gave her a much worse, much more horrible version of a panic attack," Alea finally said. "She's fine now, and I just wanted to say," Alea glanced at team ORIN and then Ivy in particular, "she's not... she's not really like how she was acting during the tournament. She's the sweetest person I've ever met, I promise. I know it seems weird, but it's important to us that you know that."

The reporter was about to continue, but Rachel and Natalie both stepped up, not so gently herding her out of the room so that she couldn't ask Ivy anymore questions.

"And stay out!" Terresa called, giving Ivy a grin that she returned.

There was a few moments of peaceful silence as the eight sat down, getting ready for the final match.

Suddenly, the door swung open.

"I told you to stay out!" Terresa called.

The door stopped for a moment before a head poked out, revealing Syntheia.

"I... I'm sorry to interrupt, I was just hoping to say good luck to Alea..."

Alea looked up with a grin that was immediately turned into a smirk.

"Syntheia! Hey! It's good to see you," Alea's tone made the words seem suggestive, but Syntheia didn't seem bothered by it, giving Alea a small smile.

"Hey, Alea. I just wanted to wish you good luck and check on Ivy."

"Aw, that's so sweet of you, Syntheia," Alea said. "Ivy's doing a lot better now, and I don't need luck. I've got skill."

Terresa snorted, and Alea gave her a small look that seemed to say "shush!"

"I'm sure you do. You were pretty awesome in our fight," Syntheia said with a small chuckle.

Alea rubbed the back of her neck, ruffling her hair some. To the others, it looked like she was sending her new friend a sultry grin, but to Ivy she looked a bit nervous. Perhaps because of the bad blood at the beginning of their fight before.

"Thanks, Syn," Alea hesitated. "Is it alright if I call you Syn?"

Syntheia laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Yes, you nerd, but only if I can call _you_ Ally."

"That seems fair," Alea said with a small smirk. "And I'm not a nerd."

There was loud laughter from the room.

"She's a nerd," Stacey said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, but so are you," Lexey said.

"Pfft!" Terresa laughed. "You're **all** nerds, I'm the only cool one in this group."

"Hey!" Alea would have sounded like she was whining, had her Aura been broken. "I'm cool."

Ivy laughed.

"You're a nerdy _mess_ ," Ivy said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, but she's a cute one," Lexey said, reaching one hand up to play with Alea's hair.

Alea moved out of the way, fixing her hair. A bit fell in her face, and she blew up at it so that it wasn't in her eyes.

Syntheia laughed and shook her head.

"A mess?" she glanced at Alea with a raised eyebrow. "Definitely. Cute?" She looked Alea up and down. "Jury's still out on that one.

Stacey let out a loud "HA!"

"Finally! **Someone** doesn't think that she's irresistible! Seriously! Finally someone logical!" Stacey cried.

Alea frowned in confusion, raising an eyebrow as she glanced at Syntheia. Alea looked like she was rather flirtatiously glancing at her new friend, who laughed.

" **You're** dating her, of course you find her irresistible, so you're one to talk," Syntheia said, raising an eyebrow as she stared at Stacey.

"Well of course **we** get to, but nobody else does," Stacey said. She crossed her arms around her chest. "And besides, we weren't messes about it."

A beat of silence.

Everyone besides Syntheia and Alea burst out laughing, causing Stacey to flush just slightly.

"I'm assuming she was a mess over...," Syntheia glanced at Alea before raising a hand and slowly gesturing up and down at Alea, " _this_?"

Alea let out an offended sound, and Syntheia gave her a playful grin that made Alea calm slightly, smirking back at her.

"Oh, she definitely was," Terresa said. "Arguably the most messy of messes."

"Uh, standing right here," Lexey said.

Terresa snorted.

"She was really bad," Terresa admitted.

Syntheia rolled her eyes.

"Can't imagine why," she said.

Lexey looked **personally** offended rather than Alea, who was on the verge of laughter, finding herself agreeing.

"Are you... not into women? Because that's the only logical explanation to that sentence," Lexey said.

"Oh, I like women just fine. It's just... that's the equivalent of everyone in school fawning over the quarter back but, like, in female form," Syntheia said with a small laugh. Alea found herself joining in, causing Lexey to gasp quietly.

"Anyways, that's all I wanted to say," Syntheia smirked at Alea with a playful look in her eyes, "good luck, I'll be rooting for you. Anyone that beat me better win the whole thing."

Alea smirked back at her, surprised when Syntheia raised her hand and punched Alea playfully before she walked out of the room, Alea watching her go with a grin. She loved making new friends, especially when they originally hated her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention. My favorite fact about the 1v1 fights that Ivy and Alea went through? They both won (Duh, me, get to the point!), but the fact is...
> 
> Neither could have won against the other one's opponent. Alea couldn't have won against someone who could steal her semblance, because that would make the other person pretty much unstoppable with Alea's AND other semblances (although to be fair this was in the doubles round, but Ivy was the only one that got a hit on her). And Ivy could never have been able to beat someone who could see into the future because she would have tried to sense what their semblance was, and then she would have seen from their perspective, which would have made her have a breakdown from being overwhelmed with everything she can see AND the future that Syntheia could see. So... even if Ivy or Alea couldn't beat each other when they sparred, they still have enough differences in their weaknesses for it to directly effect their fighting. Idk just thought it was cool and wanted to point it out if nobody noticed.
> 
> OH! Afterthought: Alea fought someone that turns off semblances, Ivy would have lost SO BADLY to that!


	35. Chapter 35

Alea took a deep breath, staring out into the stadium. There was no classic smirk on her face, no excited or playful air to her expression or mood, nothing but a sense of rage that seemed to surround her. Her teammates had already mentioned that her semblance was reflecting this, seeming to make the area around her darker, whether physically or emotionally, Alea honestly couldn't tell.

"You look like you mean business," Terresa said.

"I do," Alea replied flatly, her usually arid or even excited voice losing any sense of positivity.

Alea was about to say something else, but was cut off as she was signaled to step out into the arena.

She stepped onto the platform, and the cheering was overwhelming. Typically, she would have awkwardly waved (though it would have been seen as charming) and said something to the crowd, but this time she ignored it and walked to the center of the platform, waiting impatiently for her opponent.

"Alea Ajax, leader of team ATLS, is coming in from the right, and she looks like she means business! Never seen her look this angry, folks, even in _my_ class! Could this be becacuse of how Selene treated Ivy in the round before this? Could this be the revenge story we've all been waiting for?!"

"We haven't been waiting for this, Nora," Jaune said. Ren nodded beside him, and Nora sighed in frustration.

"The revenge story that we've been waiting for, folks! Don't miss a second of it!" Nora cried.

Alea heard the cheering increase, and she ignored it.

It didn't matter, their words didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was getting revenge for Ivy.

"And coming in from the left is team SSSN's very own Selene! After showcasing her semblance in the most recent round, she was able to defeat the unbeatable Ivy Hanson! But could such a stunning and ruthless victory over Ivy have started her downfall? Will that victory cause Alea to get her vengeance?! Maybe!" Nora called.

It was clear that she was laughing and it could even be heard as it was covered by her palm.

Alea didn't care about that, didn't care about the stadium filled with people that were chanting her name. Her gaze locked on where Ivy stood, ignoring Selene as she was walking up. Ivy was seated beside the rest of her own team and ATLS as well as...

Alea was surprised enough by Syntheia's appearance beside her own team that her angry mask slipped enough for a small smirk to grow across her lips.

Syntheia raised an eyebrow as she saw Alea looking at her, as if she was trying to ask "why aren't you paying attention? You're about to fight, stop looking at me, idiot."

Alea barely stopped herself from laughing, looking away from her and at Ivy, who gave her a small smile that seemed to communicate "I know you can do it. Thanks."

Or maybe Alea was making all of this up, but for someone who couldn't understand the most obvious social cues, she could sometimes tell what her friends were trying to tell her with their eyes.

She turned to face her competitor, and found that Nora was already counting down.

"Three," Alea drew her sword menacingly, and Selene took a step back as she got her own weapon, "two," Alea flared her semblance as high as it would go, causing a hush to fall over the crowd and Selene stumbled back two steps, "one!" Nora cried.

Alea shot forward at full speed, her sword in both hands.

Selene took a moment to think before she dropped her weapon.

Alea hesitated for just a moment, her foot planting and causing her to come grinding to a halt.

"Go ahead," Selene said. Alea glanced around as if expecting her to use her semblance.

"Go ahead. Break it."

Alea didn't understand what was happening, and the camera zoomed in on her face showed just how confused she was.

"What?" Alea finally asked.

"Go ahead. I surrender."

"What kind of trick is this?" Alea growled.

"None. You deserve it. I want you to win."

"Why?" Alea demanded lowly, flaring her semblance. "Answer me honestly!" she demanded. She knew that her semblance flared this high made it exceedingly difficult to go against her will.

There was a murmur that carried through the stadium as they watched Alea, growing louder as people began to notice that Alea's Aura was slowly being drained from her highly flared semblance.

"I regret it. I heard that water was her weakness, and I figured that I didn't deserve to win after what I did to Ivy. So please, go ahead, I forfeit."

Alea froze as she watched the other woman, brows furrowed. She knew that Selene was telling the truth, Alea knew that nobody could lie with that kind of ease when her semblance was this flared without being some kind of lying expert (so either a spy or Raven, considering what Yang had told the students living in her house when they'd asked her about her mother).

Alea hesitated for just a minute, gaze landing on Ivy.

Ivy shook her head, and Alea sighed.

There were two options here for her. She could do as she wished and beat Selene to a pulp for what she did to Ivy, make her Aura break in the most painful of ways possible and then stand over her and berate her for what she did to Ivy. She could get her revenge finally and do what she promised.

Or...

Alea sheathed her sword, sighing.

"Alright."

Selene stared at Alea in confusion, but Alea turned and didn't look at her.

"She forfeited. She put down her weapon. I win, there's no need for us to fight."

"But I-"

Alea stopped walking, planting her feet. She didn't mean to, but her semblance flared even more.

"I'm not going to take my anger out on you. You forfeited, there's nothing else to discuss."

"But I should-"

"You already seem to regret what you've done," Alea cut in. "If you want to feel better about it, you need to get Ivy to forgive, not have me beat the living dust out of you."

Alea walked out of the arena, leaving the entire stadium in a sort of shocked silence.

A few moments later, Alea reached up and snatched off her microphone, throwing it to the ground. She barely stopped herself from stomping on it in her frustration.

She stalked through the halls, holding her sword in its sheath so tightly that her knuckles were starting to turn white.

She rounded a corner, almost bumping into Ivy.

Ivy stared up at her with the slightest hint of a smile on her face.

"Did you know that revenge-"

Alea rolled her eyes sufferingly.

"I don't wanna hear it right now, Ives. The high road **sucks**. Why'd you make me do that?! I totally would have beaten her up for you!"

Ivy laughed and shook her head, leaning forward and taking Alea's hand in her own so that she could drag her down the hallway.

"You won though, didn't you?" Ivy asked.

"Doesn't feel like winning," Alea muttered, kicking against the ground as she walked by.

A few moments later, team ORIN, team ATLS, and Syntheia walked over to join them.

"Why'd you do that?! You totally could have whooped her a-"

Stacey clapped a hand over Terresa's mouth to stop her from cursing.

"Terresa, don't ask that," Stacey's gaze shot back to Alea. "But seriously why in the name of dust would you do that?!"

Terresa seemed as if she was torn between getting a response from Alea and pointing out Stacey's hypocrisy. She decided on the former.

"I had to. It was the," Alea sighed and spoke the next words in a voice that was just a hair shy from being sarcastic, "right thing to do."

"Screw that," Terresa mutterered.

"Yeah!" Lexey cheered. "Shoulda shown her the wrath of Alea Amelia Ajax!"

Alea groaned.

"Did my mom seriously tell you my middle name?"

"I don't know," Ivy smirked, "did she, Amelia?"

Alea sighed.

"You don't get the right to make fun of me, you just made me miss the chance to get revenge, so you owe me one," Alea said, bumping Ivy with her side.

Ivy rolled her eyes noncommittally.

"Well, I for one," Syntheia said, raising an eyebrow as she watched Alea, "thought that it was the right thing to do."

Alea beamed.

"But then again," Syntheia drawled, "the right thing can be over rated."

Alea laughed at that.

"I'll remember that next time, Syn," she said, giving her a wink as they started to walk down the hall again.

Before Alea had the chance to join her family, an annoyingly familiar reporter burst into the halls and stopped Alea.

"Can we please not do this right now?" Alea all but begged. "I really just wanna see my family."

"But, Alea, you and your team are missing the victory announcement."

Alea glanced at her girlfriends with a raised eyebrow.

They all looked back at her with slightly bored expressions.

"Yeah, we're good. If there's a prize though, you can send it to Lexey."

"What?!" Terresa cried, gaping at her girlfriend. "Why Lex?!"

"Because out of the three of you, she's the only trustworthy one," Alea replied with a small smirk.

"Hey! I'm very responsible," Stacey said, her arms crossed.

"I didn't say you weren't, I just said that you weren't trustworthy. There's a difference."

Stacey rolled her eyes, but she didn't argue.

They started toward the room where team RWBY waited for them, and Syntheia hesitated.

"Hey, Ally, I gotta go. See you around," she said.

"Yeah! See ya, Syn!"

Alea noticed that she wasn't walking away, and her mind began to whirl. She was waiting for something...

"Oh! Right!" Alea scrambled to pull her scroll out of her pocket. "What's your scroll number?"

Syntheia quietly chuckled before taking hr scroll and adding herself to her contacts.

"Wait...," Alea said just as Syntheia was actually about to walk off, "what school do you go to?"

Syntheia stopped and gave her a suffering look, rolling her eyes.

"Dear dust, you really are oblivious aren't you?"

Alea frowned.

"Beacon. I go to Beacon. We're in history class together."

Alea's eyes widened, and her face flushed.

"Oh! Right! Sorry, I just...," Alea's mind spun, "I guess I just didn't notice another angel in my history class."

Syntheia stared at her for a long moment before she scoffed, shaking her head with the slightest hint of a smile.

"And you say you aren't a flirt," Synthiea was still shaking her head as she walked off, waving over her shoulder. "See you in history, Ally."

"Yeah. Yeah! See you in history!" Alea called.

Lexey grabbed her hand and led Alea down the hall, putting her head on her shoulder.

"I know we gave you a hard time, but I'm actually really proud of you," Lexey whispered.

Alea gave her fond smile, pulling her closer.

"Thanks, Lex," she whispered.

Her eyes shot to Ivy, and she found that she was still smiling at her.

Alea found herself copying the expression, pulling Lexey even closer so she could place a kiss on the top of her head.

She guessed that she might not have been able to get revenge... but maybe that was alright.

She could live with this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if people enjoyed the chapter about the future of the children of RWBY maybe I can do some random ones every once in a while


	36. Apology

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nobody:  
> Me: Oh my gosh. Alea's basically a veela with social anxiety. I'm done with life. I must kill her off. She is no longer a viable character.

Alea stepped into the room, and Yang immediately threw an arm around her shoulders.

"Hey! Good job!" she said excitedly. "You did it! Even if the entire stadium is waiting for you four to get your medals!"

"Eh, they can mail 'em to us," Terresa said with an eye roll.

"Really? That's your response?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Terresa said with a small grin, bumping Alea with her shoulder.

Alea laughed, glancing back at Ivy with a small sense of guilt. Ivy rolled her eyes and gestured for Alea to enjoy the celebrations.

Yang let out a laugh and reached out, grabbing Alea and lifting her into the air.

Alea let out a sound of shock, wiggling a bit.

"Sun, help me out here!" Yang said with a grin.

Sun threw his shoulder underneath Alea to catch her, the two starting to cheer for her.

"A-le-a! A-le-a! A-le-a!" they chanted.

Stacey rolled her eyes at the pair, leaning against the wall with a fake look of disinterest, but her eyes were filled with fondness as she watched her girlfriend laughing and enjoying herself.

"Don't drop her!" Lexey called worried.

Terresa joined in on the chanting.

Alea was laughing up a storm, enjoying the absurdity of the situation-

Until a form threw themselves up into the air, and Alea almost went flopping backward onto the ground like a fish out of water. She reached out and steadied her brother, Anthony.

"Alea!" he cried in excitement, holding her tightly as he wiggled his way into her lap.

Alea let out a grunt of shock as she steadied him in her arms, holding him so that he didn't go falling backward and breaking his skull on the ground.

"You did so well!" he cried. "I mean, it would have been cool to watch you go all," he mimed swinging her sword, and Alea picked him up so that he didn't kick Sun in the face, "but it was still so cool! You were all like 'you're not worth my time, trash!'"

Alea snickered, glancing up and seeing her mother looking at her disapprovingly.

Right!

"Anthony," Alea said in the most serious voice she could manage, "don't call people trash."

"You said that you wanted to 'beat the dust out of her,'" Andrea said.

Alea winced and avoided looking at her mother.

"Thanks for saying that, Andrea," Alea gritted out, "that's a great example of something that you should **never** say, no matter what."

Anthony had on a wide, innocent smile.

"Wow, Al! You and your friends are teaching me so many new words! I heard Terresa say the word ass!"

Alea slowly turned her head to look at her girlfriend, who had shoved her hands into her pocket and started to whistle innocently.

"Hmm? What? Me? That doesn't sound like me. I'm not the type of person that would use foul language. In fact, I distinctly remember saying the other day that 'the use of foul language is a fool's only way of insulting those that are smarter than them.'"

Lexey snorted.

"Yeah, you said it, but only in a high pitched voice to mock Stacey after she said it to you," Lexey said, elbowing Terresa.

Terresa sent her a dark glare.

"The specifics of the conversation are of no import at this junction," Terresa said.

Lexey snorted again and rolled her eyes at the words.

"Get your story straight, are you a nerd or not?"

Terresa hesitated.

"Screw you," Terresa said.

"You wish," Lexey replied with a smirk.

Terresa flushed and was about to respond, but she was cut off.

"Hey! Shut up!" Stacey hissed.

Alea groaned.

"Stac, that's just as bad! All of you take a minute of silence to reflect on what you said."

Her three girlfriends looked at her with the expression of betrayal and disbelief.

"Are you serious?"

"Hush!" Alea hissed. "Because **that's** what happened when people use no-no words, right?" Alea asked, bouncing her brother up and down on her knee.

Anthony nodded with a knowing look in his eyes as he watched Stacey, Terresa, and Lexey.

"You three should be more careful with what you say. No-no words are bad," he glanced at Alea, "I thought they'd know that by now."

"I know!" Alea agreed. "Especially Stacey and Lexey, they're really smart."

"Hey!" Terresa cried.

"That's another minute!" Anthony cried.

"HA!" Lexey said, pointing at Terresa.

"That's a minute, Lex," Alea said with an eye roll and a shake of the head.

Andrea was laughing at Alea, who glared darkly at her.

"That means you too, Andrea. You said a no-no word," Alea pointed out.

"Wh-me?!" she cried.

Alea nodded, a small smirk on her face as she stared at her sister.

Andrea scoffed and crossed her arms, but she fell silent (not because of Alea, but because of their mother).

Alea let herself get back into the celebration, enjoying it as everyone cheered for her.

Alea was laughing at the absurdity, but found herself stopping when the entire room fell silent. She turned a bit on top of Sun and Yang's shoulders, looking over at the door, which had just opened.

Selene stood there, awkwardly twiddling her thumbs.

Alea hesitated before she slowly raised her hand, waving nervously with a small, awkward smile. She was thankful for her semblance, which she knew for a fact made her look smooth despite not knowing how to.

"Uh... hi, I... I was hoping I could talk to Ivy?"

Alea hesitated, gripping her brother tighter in her arms.

Her gaze shot to Ivy, who had a look of fear in her eyes, her hand landing on Natalie's upper arm subconsciously.

Ivy glanced back up at Alea and shook her head before she turned to Selene.

"Yes... yes, just... I'm be out in a second," Ivy said slowly. Alea could tell that she was struggling not to slip into her old language and ask her tons of random trivia questions.

Ivy took a deep breath, running a hand through her hair, before she stepped out of the room.

She was nervous, obviously, and she was thinking about her last time she'd seen this woman.

The water had surrounded her on all ends... encased her in its cold and empty clutches.

Ivy forced the thoughts out of her head, focusing on the matter at hand. She was struggling with it, so she reached back to lean against the wall, letting her hand fall on it. She could feel the vibrations coming from it, could feel the people in the room behind her moving around, could feel that people were quieter than they had been, clearly worried about her. She could feel-

Ivy was completely distracted as she felt very purposeful tapping against the wall.

Tap tap tap tap. A break. Tap. A break. Long tap, tap, long tap, long tap.

Ivy considered for a moment, wondering what it could mean.

Her eyes suddenly widened, and a small smile spread across her lips.

It was Morse Code!

 _Hey_.

Ivy tapped the wall behind her quickly.

_Alea, what are you doing?_

_Tapping and dashing. You?_

Ivy held in a snort, and she saw that Selene was watching her oddly. Ivy guessed it must be odd and even a bit disarming to see Ivy randomly smiling at the person who had caused her to have a panic attack.

_Trying to not be distracted from this conversation._

_You wouldn't have been listening to this wall so closely if you didn't want someone to distract you at least a bit._

_Stop trying to be the logical one. You're not good at it._

_That's what they say._

Ivy laughed quietly, and Selene stared at her.

"Are you... alright?"

Ivy stared at her blankly.

"Right... uh," Selene continued after Ivy had caused them to have a long, awkward minute of silence.

_You should have let me beat her up._

_I'm reconsidering._

_Really?! Cause I can totally do it!_

_No not really! Dust, you're just **begging** to beat someone up. Seriously, calm down._

_You don't mess with my friends and live to talk about it._

_She's apologizing about it._

_That's still talking, which is crap._

"I just... I just wanted to have the chance to apologize to you, that's it. I feel really bad about what I did. When I heard that you didn't like water, I thought it was like... well, I don't know, like Neptune," Ivy raised an eyebrow, "not... like you'd have a mental breakdown if you got covered in water. I'm really sorry, it was a jerk move, and I should have never done it. I'm really sorry, and I hope one day you can forgive me."

Ivy considered.

_She's asking for forgiveness._

_Really? What a surprise. Who could have predicted **that**?!_

_Stop with the sarcasm, you're not good at it._

_Eh, I can try,_ Alea tapped.

Ivy held in an eye roll.

"Thank you for saying that," Ivy said. "And... I can forgive you. Provided you never splash me again."

Selene let out a sigh of relief, giving Ivy a small smile.

"Thank you so much. I hope I can get the chance to make it up to you."

Ivy forced a little grin.

"It's alright. I already forgave you."

"Still."

Ivy laughed, shaking her head a bit.

"Alright. We'll have to see, I guess."

Ivy walked back into the room, joining her friends with a small sigh of relief.

Alea reached out and put her arm around Ivy's shoulders.

"You alright?" she whispered.

"Did you know that forgiveness is _not_ overrated?" Ivy asked.

"Can we fact check that?" Terresa called, causing the rest of them to laugh.

Alea scoffed and pulled Ivy closer.

"You did great."

Ivy went to put her head on Alea's shoulder, but the tam leader moved suddenly, grabbing her around the waist and hoisting her onto her shoulder.

"WHOOO! Go Ivy!" she cried. "I-vy! I-vy! I-vy!"

Team ORIN and ATLS joined in on her chanting, and Ivy shook her head, laughing.

"I didn't win, why are you cheering?"

"Because you're awesome, and you totally woulda won if she hadn't done that," Alea said, giving her a fond smile.

Ivy laughed and let herself be held up by Alea with a small grin on her face.

She thought that, despite how difficult it had been to give the other woman her forgiveness, it had been worth it. Besides, Ivy didn't need to hold onto frustration and vengeance anymore. She had way too many good things and people in her life to focus on the negative.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: idea. I have funny pollination idea. Let me write it.  
> Also me: It makes no sense. You can't write that without breaking laws of physics.  
> Also also me: I can logic it with dust. LET'S GO!  
> Also also also me: No we cannot do that, we have two other stories to be writing.  
> Another person, who is also me: But we can write three.  
> Another me: But we can finish the side one and make a new one.  
> Me: THEN STOP THINKING AND WRITE DANG IT!


	37. The Race

"Auburn, if you set one foot in that bathroom, I'll kill you!" Crystal growled, glaring darkly at her brother.

Auburn was standing in front of the bathroom, looking back at her with a considering expression on his face.

Slowly, he reached his foot into the bathroom, letting it touch the ground.

Crystal growled and threw herself forward.

"AH!" Auburn cried out in shock as Crystal tackled him to the ground, planting her knee on his chest and glaring down at him.

"I warned you!" Crystal growled.

"Whoop! Go Crystal! You know that he takes _hours_!" Aella called.

Auburn and Crystal both paused long enough to look at their sister, who was leaning against the wall and watching the pair with a small smirk, eating popcorn.

In her pajamas.

"How did you already take a shower?!" Crystal cried.

Aella smirked and held one finger up to her mouth.

"Shhh. Don't worry about it."

Crystal and Auburn shared a look.

"Why are you here then?" Crystal asked.

"I dunno. Thought I'd watch the nightly show."

Crystal rolled her eyes and turned to face her brother, who had a smirk on his face.

He lifted his leg in one quick movement, wrapping it around Crystal's tail and tugging back.

Crystal let out a loud curse as she was thrown backward.

"You little ass!" she growled, tugging her tail back to her body with a scathing glare. "We had an **agreement**! No faunus tricks!" she hissed.

"Yeah, well, I broke it!" Auburn said, diving toward the bathroom.

"Fine!" Crystal hissed, reaching her tail out as he passed by and wrapping it around his foot.

She tugged, and Auburn was thrown back toward Crystal, who grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"You little jerk," she growled, throwing him back before she raced toward the bathroom.

Before she could set foot inside, a form slid in front of her.

"Sup," Lavey said. She reached her hand up and shoved Crystal in her chest.

Crystal was sent flying backward, and Lavey took one step into the bathroom, winking at her sister before she slammed the door shut.

"That little...," Crystal growled before she raced out of the hallway, dodging furniture and Akio, who was sitting on the couch and playing video games. Jin sat beside him, intently watching the television set as she struggled to get a point against her brother. He had clearly guilted her into playing with him, considering almost none of their siblings would join him anymore, having gotten too tired of losing every round.

She was hurrying toward the other bathroom, hoping that none of her idiot siblings hadn't taken that one too.

She skidded to a stop, looking up down the hall and finding that Adolpha stood there, glaring at her.

"Don't you dare. Don't you use it."

Adolpha's gray eyes turned smug yet knowing, and she took a confident step forward.

"This is so not fair!" Crystal whined. "We all agreed no semblances after what Lavey did to Jin last time!"

"It's not **my** fault that my semblance is so awesome," Adolpha replied.

"You are **literally** the worst."

Auburn shoved Crystal's side and darted toward the bathroom.

"Correction, _he's_ the worst," Crystal said, crossing her arms and knowing that Adolpha would take care of him.

She kicked out her leg, and Auburn ran into it a moment later.

Adolpha kicked him out of the way, and he was sprawled out on the ground, staring up at the ceiling with a look that seemed to say "when did my life come to this?"

"You've been working with Aunty S?" Crystal asked.

"A bit," Adolpha said with a small smile.

"You're getting better. I mean, not as good as _I_ am with **my** semblance, but still," Crystal replied.

Adolpha scoffed.

"Not all of us have a mother with the same semblance as us."

"Exactly. Not all of us are amazing.

Adolpha snorted.

"Please! My semblance could wipe the floor with yours any day," the wolf faunus said.

Crystal considered using the piece of advice that Aunt Alea had shared with them, but decided against it. She didn't need to pull out the big guns.

"Sure... sure...," Crystal reached into her pocket, and Adolpha's eyes widened.

"Don't you dare. If you do it, I swear I'll step on your tail."

Crystal hesitated.

"You wouldn't."

"I **so** will. And I'll tie it to the bedpost while you asleep."

"You know better than to do that, after all, your ears are, like, the most sensitive thing in the world."

Adolpha hesitated.

"Fine! So you called my bluff! But that doesn't mea-"

"Nice one, Dolph. You totally fooled her," Aella said, still munching on her popcorn.

Adolpha sighed, shaking her head. She relaxed her body for just a momen-

Adolpha took off at a sprint, throwing herself toward the bathroom.

Crystal reached out to grab her, but Adolpha was too fast. She landed in a barrel roll, reaching up and slamming the bathroom door shut.

"Son of a b-"

"Son of a bitch? Really? That's what you say to the wolf faunus? Real classy," Adolpha said through the door.

Crystal growled and slammed her palm against the door.

She turned-

Only to find that Auburn had taken off, clearly racing toward the upstairs bathroom.

Crystal had almost forgotten that one was an option. There were four bathrooms in the house, their parents, the two that they could use, and the upstairs.

The upstairs was typically not an option for the kids because there was almost always someone staying upstairs that used them, considering they constantly had guests and visitors.

Crystal took off after her brother with low growl, sprinting at top speed.

She hurtled up the stairs and threw herself forward just in time to throw him against the wall, right beside the bathroom door.

As they struggled, Crystal didn't notice Aella walking up behind them sneakily.

As they grappled, Aella suddenly dropped her bowl of popcorn and spread her arms and legs, leaping into the air and gliding over the pair.

She landed in the bathroom and spun, grinning that the two shocked siblings.

"What? You really thought I already had a shower? Please! You now our moms won't let us do it before dinner!" Aella laughed and slammed the door shut. "Idiots. These are my fake out PJs, son!"

She laughed again and Crystal heard the door locked, and she cursed, scrambling to the door and banging on it, even though she knew it wouldn't work.

"You little-"

"Genius? Larger than life revolutionary thinker? Why yes I am, thank you!"

"You know that's not what I meant, ya little sneak!"

"Sneaker's gonna sneak! Thinker's gonna think! Aella's gonna win!"

And with that, Aella turned on the shower and let out a triumphant laugh.

Crystal growled, falling back against the ground.

She guessed she'd have to wait until they were done and then beat Auburn...

She had to do better next time. She couldn't wait for Auburn to finish his shower so she could get her own. Maybe it was because he had gills, but the boy took **forever**.

-

Ivy's eyes fluttered open as she was shook back and forth.

"You alright, Ives?" Alea asked. She must have fallen asleep in the nursery again. The dream was already fading, and the other girl's hand on her arm made it do so much faster, allowing her to focus on the other girl better.

"Yeah," Ivy shook her head, trying to clear it. She looked up, and found that she'd fallen asleep between Crystal and Adolpha's cribs while watching them. She'd been doing that more recently lately, what with the final exams next week. Since the tournament had ended two days ago, classes were picking up again, and Ivy had been studying a lot lately.

"We should get you to bed."

Ivy shook her head, watching the children with a small smile on her face.

"No. I can watch them."

"Don't watch for too long," Alea whispered.

Ivy's smile grew a bit.

"I think I'll be watching them for a long time, actually. And you too."

Alea grinned.

"I'm sure we will. Just make sure to get some sleep, alright?"

Ivy nodded.

"Alright... alright..."


	38. Rematch

Alea let out a groan, her head falling forward and thumping against the table.

"There, there," Ivy said idly, patting her friend on her head twice.

"Thanks," Alea said, rolling her eyes.

"Well what do you want me to say? You've been studying for like five minutes and already you gave up," Ivy replied.

"It's been," Alea checked her watch, "two hours. Two **hours** , Ives, of you asking me questions with those stupid flash cards of yours for the whole time! It's no surprise none of your teammates will study with you anymore!"

Ivy stared at her blankly.

"You're all weak willed."

Alea threw a pencil at her, and Ivy blocked it with her hand.

"Your new girlfriend's coming," Ivy muttered.

Alea frowned in confusion. Ivy could almost see the math equation behind her eyes as she tried to figure out who she was talking about.

"Lexey?" she asked.

Ivy shook her head.

"Terresa?"

"Nope."

"Stacey then," Alea said triumphantly.

"No."

Alea frowned in confusion.

"Who?"

Just then, a head poked out from behind the stack of books on the nearby shelf.

"Hey, Ally, ya busy?"

Alea blushed and glared at Ivy.

"Uh, yeah, one sec, wait for me over there?" Alea gestured a few feet away.

Syntheia nodded and walked off, leaving Alea to glare at Ivy.

"Something wrong?" Ivy asked innocently, but Alea could see just the slightest hint of a smirk on her face.

"She's not my girlfriend, Ives," Alea hissed, nudging her.

"Makes sense," Ivy said with a shrug, "she doesn't like you."

Alea frowned.

"Of course she likes me. We're friends."

"Yeah, but she doesn't like you _like that_ ," Ivy said with a playful smirk.

Alea shrugged, shoving her things into her backpack in no sort of organized way.

"Good, it's awkward when my friends like me," Alea said, giving Ivy one last grin before she left to talk to Syntheia.

"Hey!" Alea said happily. "What's up?"

"Just wanted to see if you were down for some sparring. Wanted to get in some practice with the only person in this school that could beat me before finals," Syntheia said, bumping Alea's shoulder with her own.

Alea rolled her eyes.

"Very full of yourself, aren't you? I bet Ivy could have beat you."

Syntheia raised an eyebrow.

"No, she couldn't have."

"She almost beat me," Alea pointed out as they walked out of the library.

"Doesn't change anything. Different people have different weaknesses."

Alea guessed that was a good point, but she didn't say anything about it, holding open the door for Syntheia.

Syntheia rolled her eyes at the action.

"You still trying to flirt with me? Geez, keep it to yourself," Syntheia said.

Alea scoffed.

"Please, I've got the best three girlfriends in the world, I'm fine."

Syntheia laughed and rolled her eyes again, stepping out of the library and leading Alea out.

"What, didn't see that response coming?" Alea asked.

Syntheia glared at her.

"You better not have just made a pun about my semblance," she said.

Alea grinned, but it was really a smirk.

"What's wrong with puns?" she asked.

"Everything," Syntheia responded, letting out a huff.

"Well, I hear there might be a pun question on Yang's final exam."

"I thought it was just hand-to-hand stuff," Syntheia said with an eye roll.

"Well, I may know a bit more than most people considering I live in her house."

"I've been meaning to mention that. Seems not just creepy, but also like you might be getting some unfair advantages. Maybe _that's_ why you won," Syntheia said with a smirk.

"Maybe I just won because you're not as good as you think you are," Alea replied.

"Oh, I'll tell you, I'm **exactly** as good as I think I am," Syntheia asked, walking backward in front of Alea and looking at her with a small smirk.

Alea raised an eyebrow, staring at her with evident disbelief.

"I guess we'll have to see about that," she said, stepping into the sparring room. "Bet I can find a new weakness of yours."

"Hey, no fair, you know _my_ semblance, but I don't know yours. Spill."

Alea rolled her eyes.

"I have an Aura."

"Duh," Syntheia said.

"Seriously. That's my semblance. I have a giant Aura, lets me be a bit more powerful," Alea shrugged as if it was no big deal. "I just look more intimidating, more impressive, and, apparently," Alea smirked, "more charming."

Syntheia raised a disbelieving eyebrow at the last part.

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm serious! If you were **ever** able to break my Aura, I'd lose my not-so-natural charm. Good thing you won't be able to, huh?" Alea said with a smirk.

"Oh, we'll see about it," Syntheia said. "I must say, I'm very interested to see the you under," Syntheia gestured at Alea's entire body, " **this**."

"You just gestured at all of me."

"I know."

Alea rolled her eyes and drew her weapon, mind whirling.

"Getting right into it? Alright," Syntheia said, grabbing her nunchucks and twirling them in a tight circle.

"You got your semblance on? Cause I've got an idea."

Syntheia looked a little hesitant.

"You're making me wish I didn't, but yeah."

Alea smirked.

"Cool."

Suddenly, a shadow version of her sword slammed against the ground, and thousands of bits of dust and earth flew up. It was overwhelming.

"No!" Syntheia threw herself forward, trying to block her from hitting the ground, but Alea had already thrown her sword onto the ground, and the image she had seen a moment ago appeared.

Syntheia saw the shadows all fly around her, the dust and the stone flying around her, overwhelming her senses.

A moment later, Alea shot forward and slammed her sword against Syntheia's chest and sending her careening backward.

"Ugh," Syntheia groaned as she pushed herself back up. "What'd you do?"

Alea had a smug look on her face.

"Well, I know that your semblance is kinda like Ivy's, and she can be overwhelmed by too much stimuli, a word that she explained to me by the way, so I though that maybe you would be too."

Syntheia let out a sigh, twirling her nunchucks around her body and getting ready.

"If you really wanna win, you have to use your semblance strategically. Even if you can see the future, you can't use that all the time. You should probably practice with Ivy."

Alea slammed her sword against the ground again, and dozens up shadows appeared.

Alea shot forward and kicked Syntheia in the gut, sending her flying backward again. She grunted and let out a frustrated.

"You gotta learn to tune it out. There's too much going on, but you need to focus on what matters. You have to focus on me."

"So _you're_ the most important?" Syntheia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That's not what I...," Alea shook her head and sighed, slamming her sword against the ground again.

This time, Syntheia shut off her semblance. The shadows disappeared, and she brought her nunchucks up and deflected the sword.

She turned her semblance back on and flickered her wrists, causing Alea's sword to go flying out of her hands and clattering against the floor.

Syntheia then used her semblance, racing forward, swinging her nunckucks and slamming them against Alea's head.

The two continued their fight, and Alea rolled to the side, attempting to grab her sword.

Syntheia kicked it out of the way, and Alea spun, her hand held up in front of her face.

Syntheia swung her nunchucks at Alea, hoping that the strike could get a large bit of her Aura taken down, but she hesitated with wide eyes as she saw a shadowed version of Alea's smirk.

Alea's hand opened and threw _something_ at Syntheia.

A moment later, her senses were blinded as dust was thrown at her face, overwhelming her with shadows of dust and _real_ dust that appeared in front of her.

She stumbled back, closing her eyes and trying to block it out.

Alea rolled across the ground and grabbed her sword, leaping forward and slamming her sword against Syntheia.

The pattern continued for a few minutes before Syntheia was left panting on the ground, holding up her hands in surrender with Alea's sword against her neck.

"Alright," Syntheia said, breathing deeply, "alright! I give."

Alea grinned and sheathed her sword, holding out her hand.

Syntheia let out a groan, taking her hand and letting Alea pull her to her feet.

"You okay?" Alea asked, looking down at her with a small smirk.

Syntheia distantly wondered if she really was smirking, or if that was an effect of her semblance. She found herself wishing she could have won, if only to find out what Alea was like without her Aurar in tact.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, just a little brusing."

"Bruising?" Alea asked in concern. "Your Aura didn't break. What's bruused?"

Alea leaned closer and looked at the other girl with concern. She reached forward and started to roll up Syntheia's sleeves for her.

Syntheia pulled back, rolling her eyes.

"Ego. You bruised my ego, now stop undressing me, ya perv."

Alea flushed slightly, giving her a small glare.

"You know that's not what I-"

"Yeah, yeah," Syntheia waved her hand dismissively, "whatever. I'm still a bit pissed. All that work and I don't even get to see you with a broken Aura? I think you owe me one."

Alea gave her a slightly crooked smirk, raising an eyebrow.

"Well I guess you should have won if you wanted to see it."

"It wasn't a fair fight, ya know."

"Why? Because I figured out how to beat you?"

"Yes! That's it exactly!" Syntheia said, throwing her arms up in the air, causing Alea to snicker.

"Well, maybe you should figure out my weaknesses then, if you wanna win," Alea said.

"I thought your weakness was the people you cared about," Syntheia said.

"Didn't know you were that cheesy," Alea replied with a smirk.

Syntheia scoffed, shaking her head.

"Whatever. I'll figure it out. We're gonna have a rematch."

Alea raised an eyebrow, arms crossed.

"Why would I want to fight you again? I have a perfect record! Two for two! I can retire undefeated."

Syntheia glared at her playfully.

"No way. You're going to have to have a rematch!"

"Hmm... I'll think about it," Alea said with a small grin.

Syntheia rolled her eyes sufferingly.

"Whatever, we'll have a rematch, I'll win, and then I get to see your Aura break."

"And if I win?" Alea asked.

Syntheia groaned.

"Bragging rights?"

"I already have those."

" **More** bragging rights," Syntheia sighed.

Alea beamed at her, her smirk disappearing entirely for a moment and leaving her with an excited, almost puppy-like expression.

It lasted just a minute, and then Alea's grin turned to a smirk.

As she led Syntheia out of the sparring room, she found herself wondering if that was her real smile.

Alea shepherded her out of the room with a slightly worried expression, as if she thought that Syntheia might stumble and then break her Aura and get hurt.

Syntheia rolled her eyes and Alea just gave her a small smirk.

Syntheia **still** didn't understand how everyone fell for this idiot.

Seriously, what could be so charming about _Alea Ajax_ of all people?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys enjoying Syntheia a little more now or do you still hate her? :P


	39. Plans

The last week of school was **rough**.

The testing, the sparring they had to do for final exams, the _everything_ that was going on... it was difficult for the students, but today was finally the last day of the school year.

But there were more challenges that came with this.

Alea was leaning back against the wall with a small frown, one arm wrapped around Lexey and the other around Terrresa. Stacey was leaning back against her chest, looking up at her with the smallest hint of a smile on her face.

"I don't want this year to end," Alea stated.

"Why not, Ally?" Syntheia asked. She was leaning against the wall too, but on the other side. She was giving all of team ATLS a small disgusted look at their over affectionate embrace.

"Well," Alea had a small blush on her face, "I'm gonna miss you guys. And I'm going to miss the seven! All **seven** of them!"

"Yeah, I get what you mean," Natalie said, a little frown on her face. "I guess I'll be going back to Menagerie for the break, but I don't really... have anyone to go back to."

Ivy took her hand while Rachel leaned against her side.

Natalie's parents had died when she was very young, leaving her to fend for herself from the age of five. She'd done pretty well at it for a long time... until she'd had her wings stolen from her... Natalie hated the idea of going back now. She'd finally found a family that she could call her own, and the idea of leaving it was horrifying.

Ivy could sense her concern, and she squeezed her hand tightly.

"I'd offer to let you crash at my place over the break," Rachel said, "but my parents still think I'm off getting a," she used finger quotes, "'proper' education. Plus, they're also under the impression that I'm _straight_ , which would make you coming over... awkward. Ives, wanna invite us over to your place? We can finally meet your family," Rachel said with a smirk.

Ivy's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"I was hoping that one of you would let me come over to yours. I'm not going back home."

Ivy hated going back to that place. She'd finally gotten out from under that roof, from underneath her parents control and their overbearing presence. They never had understood how Ivy's brain had worked, and they'd been terrified of it.

"Don't look at me!" Oscar cried, holding up his hands as he looked at Rachel, Ivy, and Natalie. "I'm staying at my boyfriend's over the summer."

Rachel gave him a wink, and he blushed.

"Hey! I missed him!"

Rachel nudged his side with her elbow.

"I'm _sure_."

Oscar smacked her arm, and Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Maybe we can talk team RWBY into letting us stay," Natalie said with a suddenly excited look in her eyes.

"They'd say yes, you know," Ivy said idly, her gaze unfocused as she looked into the distance. She knew that they would, that they were considering offering. Not just so they could have someone to take care of their kids, but so that they could keep their new friends around over the summer months.

Alea **beamed** (though it looked like a smirk).

"That's awesome! I wanna visit home, but... I can't leave you three," She said, pulling her girlfriends closer lovingly.

"Thanks, Lea," Ivy called.

"And you, you attention hog," Alea said with an eye roll.

"Well I'm not going back to my place," Terresa said with a scoff. "Can't put up with my sister. She's a **monster**."

"All little kids are," Stacey said with an eye roll.

"She's twenty-five," Terresa replied.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well, if you two are staying, then I will too," Stacey said, her arms crossed as she tried to look anywhere but at her girlfriends, a small blush on her face.

"Aw!" Lexey cried, reaching over and wrapping her arms around Stacey's waist to pull her closer. "Isn't she just so cute when she's embarrassed?! Aw, look at that face! How could I leave that face behind?!"

Stacey blushed more and looked like she was about to slap at Lexey's hands, but she didn't. Instead, she stood there with a deep blush, not looking at her.

Alea was beaming.

"Great! That's awesome!" she cried, wrapping her arms around the three more fully and pulling them closer to her chest and lifting her into the air enthusiastically.

She put them down and looked up at her friends with a wide grin.

"So that's everyone except...," her gaze shifted, and Syntheia was surprised to be met by a gentle, almost nervous look in her eyes, "Syntheia. You wanna join us over the summer?"

Syntheia's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wh... me?"

"Do we _know_ another Syntheia?" Stacey asked with a raised eyebrow.

Syntheia rolled her eyes and let out a huff of irritation.

"You want me to spend the summer surrounded by," she gestured at Ivy, Natalie, and Rachel (who happened to be having a make out session beside her) and team ATLS, " **that**?"

"Yes?" Alea asked, brows furrowed in confusion as she smirked just a bit.

Syntheia sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"Alright. Alright! Fine! But only because I still need another rematch, Ally."

Alea smirked at her broadly, giving her a wink

"I'll hold you to that, Syn."

"I mean, I'll stay if they let me, I guess. It seems like we don't really know each other."

"I'm sure they will!" Alea said with that same smirk on her face as she watched her.

Syntheia rolled her eyes.

"Fine."

-

It was two hours later, and Syntheia was standing in team RWBY's house surrounded by seven children, holding one of them in her arms.

"Shh... shh, hey, it's alright," she whispered, bouncing up and down as she tried to calm the almost three-month old Auburn before he threw up again.

"How did I let you talk me into this? I could have gone home, seen my family, and relaxed **all** summer, but instead I somehow let **you** ," Syntheia angrily gestured at Alea, "talk me into spending my summer as a live in baby sitter with you crazy people!"

"Don't raise your voice, it upsets Adolpha," Alea whispered. "And, like I said, I'm charming. Of course I convinced you!"

Syntheia groaned.

This was going to be a long summer.


End file.
